what is discontinuous variation

Discontinuous variation is a type of variation in phenotypic traits in which types are grouped into discrete categories with few or no intermediate phenotypes. Discontinuous variation is abrupt variation in which there are few or no intermediate forms. It results from the qualitative differences in phenotypes of individuals within a population. Qualitative differences can have two categories: discrete and distinguishable. There usually have no intermediates which refer to a feature that falls in between two categories. Discontinuous variation is also known as polymorphic variation when there are several classes, none of which is very small. In contrast, continuous variation is where the different types of variations are distributed on a continuum.