Due to the dispersal capabilities of albatross, distance between populations does not appear to be a determining factor in divergence. Actual speciation is likely to occur very slowly, as the selective pressures on the animals are the same for the vast majority of their lives, which is spent at sea. Small mutational changes in non-nuclear DNA that become fixed in small populations are likely to be the major driver of speciation. That there is minimal structural morphological difference between the genetically distinct populations is evidence for random genetic drift, rather than directional evolution due to natural selective pressure.