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Cospeciation (3 of 3) Image caption: When lineages have cospeciated, the parasite phylogeny will "mirror" the host phylogeny. This example is somewhat idealized — rarely do scientists find hosts and parasites with exactly matching phylogenies. However, sometimes the phylogenies indicate that cospeciation did happen along with some host-switching. << Back to search results

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Cospeciation (1 of 3) A species of louse lives on a species of gopher. When the gophers get together to mate, the lice get an opportunity to switch gophers and perhaps mate with lice on another gopher. Gopher-switching allows genes to flow through the louse species.

Cospeciation (2 of 3) When the gopher lineage splits into lineages A and B, lice have few opportunities for gopher-switching, and lice on gopher lineage A don't mate with lice living on gopher lineage B. This "geographic" isolation of the louse lineages may cause them to become reproductively isolated as well, and hence, separate species.