On The Observability of Speciation

Hi AustinG,Welcome to the forum.Your rephrased question: Has a definite element of saltation in it. Your question is in essence not a logical question if I may be so bold as to interpret the meaning to your opening post and subsequent posts. I've included the Wiki definition of saltation it might not hurt for you to check out the Wiki articles for speciation as well. But don't get me wrong all questions are good ones. My interpretation of your question would be something like asking why don't apples taste like oranges. And of course I may be making too great an assumption as to your meaning.Edited by CosmicChimp, : changed the post subject headingEdited by CosmicChimp, : fixed link

In your last scenario it would not very likely be the case of a newly evolved snake within 200 years, due to the inadequacy of the elapsed time frame for such an event. The gradualism for speciation is not likely on that short of a time scale. But if you look at other examples your question takes on a more plausible nature. Domesticated farm animals (or pets), I think is your "best bet" as far as finding an example of initial speciation steps in vertebrates being observed my man. Also wild animals adapting to fit into a modern man-made context might be an area to focus on, like the modern foxes, coyotes, racoons, falcons, pigeons, rats and insects in cities or crop fields.As far as humans having missed vertebrate sized animals for thousands of years, or otherwise long enough for them to have gone unnoticed as a cladogenesis event took place, highly unlikely.At the end of the day, I think you're asking how old are the species we are living beside here. Edited by CosmicChimp, : more examples.