Human speciation due to geographic separation

A quick question for the biological gurus at this board:
Assuming that an arbitrarily-sized group of humans was isolated from the rest of the population, would a new species be formed? If so, how long would this take? I remember seeing a television program a few years ago, that featured a similar situation, where a number of biologically isolated environments existed (in South America, I think).This message has been edited by AdminNosy, 06-26-2005 01:47 AM

Welcome to EvC. There's lots to learn here.To get this topic off to a good start(and I think it is a pretty good one) could you pick a better title?How about something like "Human speciation due to geographic separation"?There are real biolgists here who will be able to point you to the answer to this question.If you change the title then I think this should be promoted. It might also be a good idea to suggest what boundaries you would like on the discussion. For example, can this talk about the example of other non-human groups or are you intending to restrict it a lot.

Thanks Nosy!
Just to make it a bit clearer...If a certain number of people- say 100,000- were to be isolated in a remote part of the planet...how long would it take for this isolated group to become unable to interbreed with Homo sapiens?
Is it even possible?

Thread copied to the Human speciation due to geographic separation thread in the Biological Evolution forum, this copy of the thread has been closed.