Sympatry - Types of Populations

Types of Populations

Four main types of population pairs exist in nature. Sympatric populations (or species) contrast with parapatric populations, which contact one another in adjacent but not shared ranges and do not interbreed; peripatric species, which are separated only by areas in which neither organism occurs; and allopatric species, which occur in entirely distinct ranges that are neither adjacent nor overlapping. Allopatric populations isolated from one another by geographical factors (e.g., mountain ranges or bodies of water) may experience genetic - and, ultimately, phenotypic - changes in response to their varying environments. These may drive allopatric speciation, which is arguably the dominant mode of speciation.

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