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ID the Future Intelligent Design, Evolution, and Science Podcast
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What is Speciation?

Episode
579
With
David Boze
Guest
Casey Luskin
Duration
00:10:25
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Audio File (8.4 mb)
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On this episode of ID the Future, David Boze interviews Casey Luskin about a recent study published in Nature that claimed that scientists can predict the number of species that will develop within a clade. Such forecasts of speciation are based on the amount of living space available and the prominence of sexually selected traits. However, many of the differences between “species” are quite trivial; what constitutes one species as separate from another when there are no fundamental distinctions?

Casey Luskin

Associate Director and Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture
Casey Luskin is a geologist and an attorney with graduate degrees in science and law, giving him expertise in both the scientific and legal dimensions of the debate over evolution. He earned his PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg, and BS and MS degrees in Earth Sciences from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied evolution extensively at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. His law degree is from the University of San Diego, where he focused his studies on First Amendment law, education law, and environmental law.
Tags
body plans
Cladistics
Nature
sexually selected traits
speciation