Theory and speciation

The study of speciation has become one of the most active areas of evolutio nary biology, and substantial progress has been made in documenting end und erstanding phenomena ranging from sympatric speciation and reinforcement to the evolutionary genetics of postzygotic isolation. This progress has been driven largely by empirical results, and most useful theoretical work has concentrated on making sense of empirical patterns. Given the complexity of speciation. mathematical theory is subordinate to verbal theory and genera lizations about data. Nevertheless, mathematical theory can provide a usefu l classification of verbal theories; can help determine the biological plau sibility of verbal theories; can determine whether alternative mechanisms o f speciation are consistent with empirical patterns; and can occasionally p rovide predictions that go beyond empirical generalizations. We discuss rec ent examples of progress in each of these areas.