Science Assessment ~ Topics ~ Evolution and Natural Selection ~ Misconception ENM060

Speciation occurs when two different species interbreed. Their offspring is a new species which has characteristics from both parent species. For example, students may believe that dogs and cats are different species because some members of an ancestral population bred with a dog-like species while others bred with a cat-like species (AAAS project 2061, n.d.).

Items that test for misconception ENM060 in this project (Evolution) and key idea (New species can arise when barriers…)
Item ID Number	Item Description	How Often the Misconception was Chosen	Select This Item for My Item Bank
CA018003	Cats and dogs became two different species when two groups in the ancestral species population became separated and could no longer breed with each other. Over time, the descendants of one group became cats and descendants of the other group became dogs.	33%