← Evolutionary processes leading to speciation
2 How this connects to the other Level 3 Biology standards
The mechanisms driving speciation here — natural selection, genetic drift, the founder effect — reappear as specific case studies in 91603 and 91606, applied to particular species or a particular lineage.Shared ideas across the Level 3 Biology externals
- The founder effect and genetic drift explaining low diversity in an isolated population (e.g. the kākāpō here) is the identical mechanism 91606 uses to explain declining human genetic diversity away from Africa.
- Courtship as a reproductive isolating mechanism, examined here for speciation, is the SAME mechanism 91603 treats as a survival-value behaviour — just viewed from two different angles (species boundary vs individual survival).
- The "reproductive success" framing that closes every 91603 Excellence answer is the same underlying currency this standard uses when judging a trait's evolutionary success.