Such as chimpanzees branching into common chimpanzees and bonobos, as explained in this video
Presumably it’s not that some chimpanzees just suddenly started giving birth to bonobos overnight…?
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We can, to a limited extent, demonstrate speciation in things like fruit flies that have very short generations. Speciation for complex mammals is a different story.
In fact, we argue about speciation constantly, DNA helps but we still need to figure when a species is really a different species or a sub-species.
There are a group of wolves that evolved to hunt by swimming on Vancouver. These are not their own species…yet. After many generations, they may evolve into a separate species provided that when they get into the same range as other wolves they don’t inter-mate as a regular part of their lives.
So the short answer is that an ecological pressure can cause a subset of a species to specialize, using genetic abilities that exist in all of the members. All wolves can swim, only one set swims to stay alive. They specialize to the point that other characteristics are no longer selected for, a new species begins to emerge.
This is a deep question, it is known that Neanderthals and man regularly mated, but we still consider ourselves a distinct species from one another.
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