Editing Macroevolution (section)

=== Speciation ===
{{Main|speciation}}
According to the modern definition, the evolutionary transition from the ancestral to the daughter species is microevolutionary, because it results from selection (or, more generally, sorting) among varying organisms.  However, speciation has also a macroevolutionary aspect, because it produces the interspecific variation species selection operates on.<ref name=":1" /> Another macroevolutionary aspect of speciation is the rate at which it successfully occurs, analogous to reproductive success in microevolution.<ref name=":0" />

Speciation is the process in which populations within one species change to an extent at which they become [[Reproductive isolation|reproductively isolated]], that is, they cannot interbreed anymore. However, this classical concept has been challenged and more recently, a phylogenetic or evolutionary [[species]] concept has been adopted. Their main criteria for new species is to be diagnosable and [[Monophyly|monophyletic]], that is, they form a clearly defined lineage.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Luckow |first=Melissa |date=1995 |title=Species Concepts: Assumptions, Methods, and Applications |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2419812 |journal=Systematic Botany |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=589–605 |doi=10.2307/2419812 |jstor=2419812 |issn=0363-6445|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Frost |first1=Darrel R. |last2=Hillis |first2=David M. |date=1990 |title=Species in Concept and Practice: Herpetological Applications |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3892607 |journal=Herpetologica |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=86–104 |jstor=3892607 |issn=0018-0831}}</ref>

[[Charles Darwin]] first discovered that speciation can be extrapolated so that species not only evolve into new species, but also into new [[Genus|genera]], families and other groups of animals. In other words, macroevolution is reducible to microevolution through selection of traits over long periods of time.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Greenwood|first=P. H.|title=Macroevolution - myth or reality ?|journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society|year=1979|volume=12|issue=4|pages=293–304|doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.1979.tb00061.x}}</ref> In addition, some scholars have argued that selection at the species level is important as well.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Grantham|first=T A|date=November 1995|title=Hierarchical Approaches to Macroevolution: Recent Work on Species Selection and the "Effect Hypothesis"|journal=Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics|language=en|volume=26|issue=1|pages=301–321|doi=10.1146/annurev.es.26.110195.001505|bibcode=1995AnRES..26..301G |issn=0066-4162}}</ref> The advent of genome sequencing enabled the discovery of gradual genetic changes both during speciation but also across higher taxa. For instance, the evolution of humans from ancestral primates or other mammals can be traced to numerous but individual mutations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Foley |first1=Nicole M. |last2=Mason |first2=Victor C. |last3=Harris |first3=Andrew J. |last4=Bredemeyer |first4=Kevin R. |last5=Damas |first5=Joana |last6=Lewin |first6=Harris A. |last7=Eizirik |first7=Eduardo |last8=Gatesy |first8=John |last9=Karlsson |first9=Elinor K. |last10=Lindblad-Toh |first10=Kerstin |last11=Zoonomia Consortium‡ |last12=Springer |first12=Mark S. |last13=Murphy |first13=William J. |last14=Andrews |first14=Gregory |last15=Armstrong |first15=Joel C. |date=2023-04-28 |title=A genomic timescale for placental mammal evolution |journal=Science |language=en |volume=380 |issue=6643 |pages=eabl8189 |doi=10.1126/science.abl8189 |issn=0036-8075 |pmc=10233747 |pmid=37104581}}</ref>