Natural Hybridization and Evolution

Abstract

Abstract This study draws on data from numerous sources that support the paradigm of natural hybridization as an important evolutionary process. The review of these data results in a challenge to the framework used by many evolutionary biologists, which sees the process of natural hybridization as maladaptive because it represents a violation of divergent evolution. In contrast, this book presents evidence of a significant role for natural hybridization in furthering adaptive evolution and evolutionary diversification in both plants and animals.