Deviously Darwinian: 6 Strange Evolutionary Phenomena

6. hybridization

Hybridization in nature is actually more common than was previously thought. Ligers may not pop up in nature due to the geographical separation of lions and tigers, but a new species of monkey discovered in 2003 had evidence of baboon ancestry in its mitochondrial DNA. In 2010, scientists proposed that a species of fruit bat was actually derived from hybridization between two other bat species. And in 2012, a new species of monkey flower, the result of hybridization, was discovered in Scotland.