Sympatric speciation is the evolution of a new species from a surviving ancestral species while both continue to inhabit the same geographic region. In evolutionary biology and biogeography, sympatric and sympatry are terms referring to organisms whose ranges overlap so that they occur together at least in some places.
Sympatric speciation is speciation that occurs when two groups of the same species live in the same geographic location, but they evolve differently until they can no longer interbreed and are considered different species. It is different from other types of speciation, which involve the formation of a new species when a population is split into groups via a geographic barrier or migration. Sympatric speciation can be seen in many different types of organisms including bacteria, cichlid fish, and the apple maggot fly.
