What is speciation?

Speciation is when one kind of animal or plant becomes two different kinds, like cousins who start to look and act differently over time.

Imagine you have a big family of squirrels living in one park. They all eat acorns, play hide-and-seek in the trees, and live together happily. Now suppose some of them move to another park nearby, where the food is different, maybe there are more berries than acorns. Over many years, these squirrels start eating more berries, and their bodies change a little to help them do that better.

Meanwhile, the squirrels who stayed in the first park keep eating acorns, and they stay just like they were. Eventually, the two groups of squirrels look different and act differently, almost like cousins who grew up far apart and forgot how much they had in common!

That’s speciation, when a group splits into two new kinds because of changes over time. It's like when your family grows so big that some of you start living in different neighborhoods, and eventually, you all become a little different from each other!