Paraspecies

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Species with co-existing daughter species

title: "Paraspecies" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["evolutionary-biology"] description: "Species with co-existing daughter species" topic_path: "science/biology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraspecies" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Species with co-existing daughter species ::

A paraspecies (a paraphyletic species) is a species, living or fossil, that gave rise to one or more daughter species without itself becoming extinct. Geographically widespread species that have given rise to one or more daughter species as peripheral isolates without themselves becoming extinct (i.e. through peripatric speciation) are examples of paraspecies.

Paraspecies are expected from evolutionary theory (Crisp and Chandler, 1996), and are empirical realities in many terrestrial and aquatic taxa.

Examples

A well-documented example of a living mammal species that gave rise to another living species is the evolution of the polar bear from the brown bear.
An example of a living plant paraspecies is Pouteria cuspidata, the pouteria trees or eggfruits.

References

(8 March 2011). "Historical Biogeography of Neotropical Freshwater Fishes". University of California Press.
Ackery, P. R., and R. I. Vane-Wright. 1984. Milkweed Butterflies: Their Cladistics and Biology. Cornell University Press, Ithaca. 425 pp.
Patton, J. L., and M. F. Smith. 1989. Population structure and the genetic and morphologic divergence among pocket gopher species (Genus ''[[Thomomys]]''). Pp. 284-304 in: Speciation and its Consequences (D. Otte and J. A. Endler, eds.). Sinauer Associates, Sunderland.
Bell, M. A., and S. A. Foster. 1994. The Evolutionary Biology of the Threespine Stickleback. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
(1996). "Paraphyletic species". Telopea.
(2003). "Species-level paraphyly and polyphyly: Frequency, causes, and consequences, with insights from animal mitochondrial DNA". Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics.
(April 2005). "Phylogenetic systematics and historical biogeography of the Neotropical electric fish Gymnotus (Teleostei: Gymnotidae)". Systematics and Biodiversity.
"Publications".
(2004). "Phylogeography and intraspecific genetic variation of prochilodontid fishes endemic to rivers of northern South America". Journal of Fish Biology.
(2007). "Description, biology and conservation of a new species of Australian tree frog (Amphibia: Anura: Hylidae: ''Litoria'') and an assessment of the remaining populations of ''Litoria genimaculata'' Horst, 1883: systematic and conservation implications of an unusual speciation event". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.
(2008). "Molecular systematics and historical biogeography of the Black-browed Barbet species complex (''Megalaima oorti'')". Ibis.
(2008). "Molecular and morphological evaluation of the aphid genus ''Hyalopterus'' Koch (Insecta: Hemiptera: Aphididae), with a description of a new species". Zootaxa.
(9 July 2011). "Polar bears related to extinct Irish bears, DNA study shows". Wikinews.
(August 2011). "Ancient Hybridization and an Irish Origin for the Modern Polar Bear Matriline". Current Biology.
(June 2021). "Andean orogeny and the diversification of lowland neotropical rain forest trees: A case study in Sapotaceae". Global and Planetary Change.

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