Escape and radiate coevolution

Garter snake is an example of escape and radiate coevolution.[why?] Escape and radiate coevolution is a hypothesis proposing that a coevolutionary 'arms-race' between primary producers and their consumers contributes to the diversification of species by accelerating speciation rates. The hypothesized process involves the evolution of novel defenses in the host, allowing it to "escape" and then "radiate" into differing species. History This hypothesis originated in a 1964 paper by Paul Ehrlich and Peter Raven, "Butterflies and plants: a study in coevolution". While this paper outlined the concept, the actual term "escape and radiate" was not actually coined until 1989 by John N. Thompson.[citation needed] The theory has been highly influential in chemical ecology and plant evolutionary ecology, but remains controversial due to the difficulty of collecting decisive evidence as well as uncertainty about the mechanisms linking ecological 'escape' with evolutionary diversification. Theory Escape A variety of defense mechanisms can lead to ecological escape from predators. Plants use chemical defenses in the form of secondary metabolites or allelochemicals. These allelochemicals inhibit