Hybrid Zones

Hybrid zones are narrow geographic regions where different populations, races or interbreeding species meet and mate, producing mixed ‘hybrid’ offspring. They are relatively common and can be found in a diverse range of organisms and environments. The study of hybrid zones has played an important role in our understanding of the origin of species, with hybrid zones having been described as ‘natural laboratories’. This is because they allow us to study,in situ, the conditions and evolutionary forces that enable divergent taxa to remain distinct despite some ongoing gene exchange between them.