What did a peculiar buck specimen discovered in the 1980s suggest about O. virginianus ancestors?
Answer
It possessed intermediate skull and antler characteristics bridging the divergence
Fossil findings, such as a peculiar buck specimen identified in the 1980s, provide tangible evidence of the gradual nature of speciation. This particular specimen displayed skull and antler characteristics that appeared to bridge the morphological gap between the white-tailed deer and the mule deer lineages. Such intermediate traits support the understanding that the full specialization of the two modern species was not an instantaneous event but rather a gradual accumulation of trait differences driven by divergent selective pressures following their initial separation millions of years prior.
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