I read the Heroine FB page that Wiilam put up, and my question is not so much the how (tectonic events can easily change the course and position of rivers to combine species at a certain point, and un-combine them later, allowing for a population of a hybrid of 2 species to form and in the end create a new one).
Consider that Herichthys minckleyi is the result of the isolation of a carpintus/cyanoguttus in the desert pools of Cuatro Cienegas, and that minckeyi is at this moment evolving into 3 distinct species due to trophic fluctuations.
My question is the when.
Did this hybridization take place 1 million years ago and evolve over that time, or only 10,000, or even more recently? How long did the process take to create the new and distinct species.
Will this kind of speciation occur now with the man made relocation of managuense to habitats where close cousins like Parachromis motaguense or freidrichsthali are endemic.
I believe this possibility/question came up when Parachromis "la Ceiba was found in an area where managuense had been introduced.