The process of very different organisms forming by evolution in isolated, different environments from a common ancestor. Also called adaptive radiation

The divergence of a single interbreeding population or species into two or more descendant species.

Divergent evolution occurs when two or more biological characteristics have a common evolutionary origin but have diverged over evolutionary time. This is also known as adaption or adaptive evolution. These characters can be observable structures from different species or they can be molecular entities, such as genes or pathways.