The Paradox of Speciation

To the extent that the fitness of an individual depends on its
reproductive viability within the group, selection pressure tends to
increase collective interoperability of the biological means of
reproduction. In other words, given compatibility as a principle
criterion of the adaptiveness of an organism's capacity to reproduce,
natural selection causes a convergent force on reproductive function.

Accordingly, there are three categories of selection pressure, adding
a third to the usual two: 1) environmental, effecting survival in the
world at large, 2) sexual, pertaining to choice of mates, and 3)
reproductive, where individual fitness is determined by physiological
compatibility within the reproductive ecology of the group.

Therefore, describing the origin of a diversity of species in terms of
natural selection results in a paradox. Insofar as a mutation
contributes to speciation, it also, by definition, reduces
reproductive compatibility with available mates and is thus
detrimental to fitness. For a group to be infertile with any of its
progenitors implies the success of a transitional physiology of
reproduction with a significantly impaired ability to reproduce. A
mechanism other than mutation and natural selection is necessary to
explain the evolutionary transition between two reproductively
incompatible populations.

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