A ring species is a connected series of neighboring populations, each able to interbreed with the populations next to it along a geographic path, while the populations at the two ends of the chain, where the path loops back on itself, have diverged too far to interbreed with each other. Because the populations in between can interbreed freely while the two ends cannot, a ring species is often used as a real world example of populations gradually diverging into what behave as separate species.
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1. Ring species (Wikipedia)
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In biology, a ring species is a connected series of neighbouring populations, each of which interbreeds with closely sited related populations, but for which there exist at least two end populations in the series which are too distantly related to interbreed, though there is a potential gene flow between linked neighbouring populations.
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