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Is there an observed (direct not indirect) speciation on record showing a species shift within the span of history of recorded science?

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    $\begingroup$ I think this post may interest you. It is maybe even a duplicate. $\endgroup$
    – Remi.b
    Jun 30, 2014 at 21:27
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    $\begingroup$ a simple google search would have provided this page showing examples of speciation, even artificial ones (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciation) $\endgroup$ Jun 30, 2014 at 21:55
  • $\begingroup$ I'm looking for something more along the lines of a fruit fly evolving into a june bug or an ape evolving into a human. Obviously those examples are ridiculous, but they explain my point. I'm looking for something where one kind becomes another... and I hate using that word... $\endgroup$ Jul 1, 2014 at 20:08
  • $\begingroup$ I should add that I don't expect to find anything like this, but I figured this would be the place to ask. $\endgroup$ Jul 1, 2014 at 20:35
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    $\begingroup$ This question seems to involve an attempt to respond to ID rhetoric. Instead of asking a precise but open-minded question OP is asking for an example of something that may not be directly observable. This site wastes too much time (IMO) responding to faux-naif questions from evolution deniers masquerading as open-minded middlemen. There are plenty of these questions in the record and on the net. This is not the forum for them even if the OP is in fact well-intentioned. $\endgroup$
    – daniel
    Jul 8, 2014 at 0:31

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Could not fit in a comment…

What kind of observations will you accept to be an observation? If we can demonstrate showing genetic data that two current species where actually only one some time in the past would it represent an observation to you? Or does it has to be a lab experiment (experimental evolution)? Experimental evolution with big animals take much time, I am afraid we probably have no evidence (not counter-evidence) of a mammal species that evolve to be phenotypically speaking as different than a fruit fly and a june bug (example coming from your comment). Would you accept considering microorganisms (I have no example in head though right now)?

As you noted yourself I think, it is difficult to know how different (phenotypically or genetically?) should two sister populations (populations who derived from a common ancestral population) be so that you would consider that one of these populations at least evolved into another "kind" (compare to the ancestral population).

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  • $\begingroup$ I 'knew' that there would not be an answer that would give me what I wanted after 'thorough' online searches. But I had hope that someone would have an obscure link that Google had missed. The level of evolutionary steps I was searching for are just not going to happen within the tiny historical steps as little as decades or even millenia. I was being WAY too optimistic. $\endgroup$ Jul 11, 2014 at 20:51
  • $\begingroup$ but I had to try! $\endgroup$ Jul 11, 2014 at 20:51
  • $\begingroup$ Good to try $\ddot \smile$ Hope you agree that you have to decide 1) what you will accept as being an observation (Not all methods of observation in science are easy to understand for non literate) and 2) what kind of differences you are interested in. $\endgroup$
    – Remi.b
    Jul 11, 2014 at 22:14

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