Speciation Puns

I honestly wish I'd asked this question sooner because I've thought about it whenever I've seen a cuckoo for a decade and never found the information publicly available.

The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is a brood parasite which appears to be in a constant evolutionary arms race with its host species to mimic their eggs well enough to evade detection and eviction from the nest. But this one species mimics the eggs of a range of host bird species with very different eggs.

Presumably, an individual female cuckoo only successfully targets the nests of one host species and the colour and pattern (size?) of the eggs that she produces are determined genetically. If this is the case then has anybody studied the genetic basis of this and subsequently whether the common cuckoo is diverging into species which each specialise in just one host species? And what type of speciation would this be? Are they selectively mating based on location/biome/environment?

Basically, I was thinking about like... spec-bio/spec-evo, but centered around feral fluffies, with a tone that takes them at least mostly seriously, considers it possible that they actually can steadily move away from the same ol' "defective, self-destructive, and ultra helpless" schtick, and is at least internally consistent even if it's not 100% realistic.

A summarized explanation for the kind of world I'm headcanoning here:

Setting: An Earth technically several hundred years in the future, but stagnated to the point it only feels a little futuristic, if at all, due to a steady hodgepodge of wars, economic collapses, poor leadership, illnesses, and general failures to clean up our act. (some of the collapses and illnesses being unintentionally exacerbated by Fluffies)

Meta-wise, this is both to still not have to think too hard about how society and tech has changed, and because I see it as a sort of collective "punishment" for this universe's version of humanity. That same selfish callousness that makes them unable to give up on abusing Fluffies also leaves them still unable to collectively get their shit together. Nobody really wins either way.

Nature of Fluffy Evolution: In this setting, Fluffy populations mutate over time at a much higher rate than normal mammals thanks to not just fast breeding, but their hybridized nature. The scientists didn't flawlessly single out only the exact genes for everything. Fluffies are chock-full of a much higher variety/density of "dormant" and "hidden" genes that are still relatively easy to reactivate.

Basically, fluffies here are also really prone to atavism, aka, recurring traits from all the creatures that fluffies once were.

It's also still directly and actively humanity's fault even up to the current times of this alternate world, as this means that even without any more laboratory gene modification, plain ol' artificial selective breeding is still bizarrely fast at producing new breeds and variants that then also trickle into the wild.

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Couple of my example ideas for the new feral/wild breeds. Everyone else is free to discuss them, the setting in general, or add more.

Sweet Peas: This breed, originating largely from Fluffies selectively bred to be kinder, more emotionally mature, and more patient, has seen success by offsetting the downsides of excessive naivety, docility, and trust with rely

What are some other major complex organs, like the eye, that evolved independently in different branches of speciation?

I play a lot of battlegrounds, and a lot of the time when I'm top 4 and die I wish I could watch the person who beat me... is this something people might also want?

For more of the background info on this setting, and more example species/breeds: Part 1

Another part, with no further background info, just another four species: Part 2

So, basic recap of how the idea and world works before I continue:

-Fluffy populations mutate super fast over time due to weird DNA, and all the selective breeding.

-Several hundreds/couple thousands of years in the future, but, still mostly modern-day tech

-Tech level due to stagnation/regression of alternate humanity.

-Environment is worse, sea level is higher, but still livable and semi-stable.

As the title suggests, I've decided to start giving these thematic focuses. This time, I'm devoting the whole post to a singular, but lengthy and complicated new species, highly derived from fluffies to the point they've become separate, and able to genuinely threaten and unsettle humanity to some degree.

Warning that this will have some definite weirdbox and sadbox elements, and might come off as OP, but that's also the point. I wanted to write something that tries to justify why that is, and have a creature that seems especially "magical" and "mythical" but technically isn't. A very polished, high-budget creature made in a more advanced time, before humanity's tech regressed again.

Foreword on Future Humanity: So, to clear something up, there's this super fancy, derived fluffy breed, but this future world is mostly modern in tech and only has a very tiny percentage of significantly modified humans. Why? Isn't that unfair? Well, meta-wise, anything more ruins the "vibe" I'm going for. These humans aren't supposed to be cool. There are still a lot of good individuals, but on the whole, they're supposed to kinda suck shit. Unglamorously, thanklessly holding things together with hope and duct tape. Even gritty, crappy cyberpunk dystopia is still too cool for them.

They're not supposed to be rewarded for being the kind of society that can't truly give up fluffy abuse, because realistically, I don't think such people could manage to stop abusing each other, either. We, as real people, have the luxury of all this Fluffy stuff being just a fictional outlet, so please note that it's not meant to be a judgment of any of you, or real people in general. It's just that these

For more of the background info on this setting, and more example species/breeds: Part 1

This continues on from an earlier post, linked above, where I had an idea for a world where feral fluffies have branched into various breeds/species.

So, basic recap of how the idea and world works before I continue:
-Fluffy populations mutate super fast over time due to weird DNA, and all the selective breeding.
-Several hundreds/couple thousands of years in the future, but, still mostly modern-day tech
-Tech level due to stagnation/regression of alternate humanity.
-Environment is worse, sea level is higher, but still livable and semi-stable.

My new species/breeds in this post. As before, discussion, additions, etc are all welcome.:
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Ratroach: Also called 'the shittiest shitrats', this is a largely reviled, filthy variant of Fluffy that humanity has rendered an unfortunate ecological necessity, due to its highly valuable ability to eat vast quantities of carbon-based garbage such as plastics, along with many dangerous chemicals. They likely started out lab-made, but the Ratroach's true origins have been lost to time.

Habitat: Almost anywhere, especially anywhere with trash, as Ratroaches are incredibly hardy, much to the chagrin of most people.

Appearance: A dingy-colored Fluffy, no more than 5 pounds, with a reinforced snout, hooves, and small tusks all specialized for digging through garbage and soil, along with beady eyes. The skin is loose, thick, and rubbery. The tail is almost non-existent, and the fur is short, dense, and greasy, even when "clean", affording further protection from chemicals and water. The teeth and jaws are surprisingly strong.

Biological Behavior: Ratroaches barely have predators, due to their diet making them very foul-tasting and toxic, and they are ridiculously resistant to toxins and pathogens. Their food source is also nigh-endless and largely uncontested, all factors leading to Ratroaches ironically being very docile, gregarious, laid-back creatures despite reputation.

But when pressed, they have a strong bite that is mildly toxic and caustic, as a side-effect of special, pre-digestive saliva. But for the same reasons, their mouths harbor few pathogens. Diet and harsh d

(title).

What pressures would cause a group of organisms to speciate rather than either adapt into a single niche or generalize into multiple niches?

I'm trying to figure out how the organisms (wheat, mouse, genetically engineered cat) on a seeded world I'm designing experienced adaptive radiation beyond just by separating the populations.

But everything I can think of feels like I'm artificially saying it happened just because I want it to.

Okay, so I’ve seen a good bit of people use this link before in debates/discussions with YECs.. But, there’s a sentence in the link that explicitly says:

“It has been suggested that laboratory experiments are not conducive to vicariant speciation events (allopatric and peripatric) due to their small population sizes and limited generations.[2] Most estimates from studies of nature indicate that speciation takes hundreds of thousands to millions of years.”

I’m mainly worried about that [2] source which to me seems to be a critique about past speciation experiments bc of the processes scientists used.. But, a person I’m debating is using “are not conducive to vicariant speciation events” against me, I know we come a good way since 2002..

Like yeast speciation, with hybridization speciation.. I should’ve just used that but I’m at a lost bc I can’t seem to figure out that paper 100%… I’m getting the feeling its not arguing against speciation in the lab but critiquing past methods bc of ambiguity.. Also, was those examples completed speciation or processes leading to a speciation event???

Here is the [2] direct link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1420-9101.2002.00356.x

TLDR: brain farts, getting lost but it feels so simple of a read for a senior in HS, but I’m somehow not understanding or connecting the dots..

Edit: I’m reading, ig its just not clicking on my end

Anti-vaxxers/anti-maskers/COVID deniers have reached a level of stupidity that i sometimes doubt how they even manage to get through their daily human lives! To a point that i sometimes wonder if they could even still be considered the same species as your average Homo sapiens. Maybe a dumber subspecies of Homo sapiens.

So i have decided that i am going to call them Homo stultus. Homo (latin: human) stultus (latin: stupid/foolish).

So, today's topic of mind exercise is the concept that genetic tampering (via methods such as CRISPR and its inevitable, eventual future evolutions) will give rise to new branches on the human family tree

In other words, as we evolve naturally over the coming centuries (assuming of course we survive this one) and come to explore and settle other worlds and even star systems (this IS a sci-fi discussion, after all), will humanity also come to see new subdivisions of the hominid club emerge not merely as a result of natural selection, but also directed programs aimed at improving people's odds at surviving on other worlds (i.e. Mars, Titan, etc)

This of course has a whole subset of ideas racing along behind it: what will "racism" look like when there are actually different species of humans living on different worlds? What kinds of adaptations would actually be beneficial to aid in the success of human colonization of other worlds? Etc etc...

I'm hoping this discussion will improve the concepts in my own WIP universe, and maybe yours, too, so any ideas or input are very much appreciated

Hi all,

I had some trouble finding this answer on Google, so I figured I'd try here. Have there been any experiments on animals with especially quick reproductive rates that are given an environmental stimulus and are observed for a long time, potentially resulting in speciation?

I found one where researchers adjusted the temperature of a Drosophila Melanogaster tank and the flies adapted to the changes by changing their coloring and behavior. I'm looking for something similar.

I'm making a huge explosion if biodiversity for the tresfolium, I'll be making one with a longer stem that will evolve into tresfolium with hard bases, really tall tresfolium and spiky tresfolium. I will also be making fungi like tresfolium and floating ribbon tresfolium that may evolve into lily pad like tresfolium that floats on top of the water.

So I was wondering if two species could merge back together. If two populations were separated for a long enough time that they could speciate, then is it possible for them to hybridize and merge their species after coming together again?

Zero A6M5 and the Corsair F4U 1C

Do I go with the control surfaces or the finned barrels?

Because I'm stuck if the control actually helps in dog fights or should I go with the barrels to help keep the pressure?

Also while I'm here do I go with the rockets or the control again for the bf 109 G-6