why is Galapagos Islands a particularly good place to study evolution? thanks for answering?

Answer 1

These islands were formed as a result of tectonic activity. So, when they first came to be, they didn't have much life to start with. Most of the animals and plants that now flourish on the island must have floated by sea or flew in by air to the island from mainland and populated it.

What fascinates scientists is how the species on the island are similar to mainland or wherever they came from, but have certain evolutionary traits that differentiate them from their ancestors from the mainland. This differentiation is because of evolution to adapt to their new environment.

Therefore, it is a good place for studying evolution because the species on the island underwent adaptive radiation, which is the evolution of many diversely adapted species from a common ancestor.

Answer 2

Galapagos is such an exellent place to study evoulution because of the many islands that make it up. If you compare one species of animal on one island to a similar one on another, you can clearly see the changes in that have occured over time. Say, for example, you are studying birds. You take a look at three islands and find three similar species of bird. One has a large beak, the second has a long and narrow beak, and the third has a short and wide beak. Each of the birds origionated from the same spiecies, but due to the different circumstances of each island, they each evolved differently.

Hope that helped!

Answer 3

Charles Darwin discovered the Galapagos and use many of the creatures for his study. The reason as I understand that it is such a valuable tool for evolution study is that it was untouched by human interference for so long. The island actually had a chance to evolve through nature and not man's hand.

Answer 4

the galapagos is a good place because they are to far from any large bodies of land and nothing could migrate there and it was still undiscovered the way it became populated was from creatures who where in bad storms and drifted to the islands and since the islands where fairly new it was almost uninhabitable with free flowing lava and boiling hot rocks the animals had to learn to adapt or die (concept evolve or die) like the galapagos iguana ha dto adapt strong claws, large lungs in order to cling to the rocks and stay under for a long time while it ate the alge that is now its main food since there was nothing to eat on the island they retreated to the sea to find it.

and that is why

Answer 5

the galapagos islands show certain patterns of microevolution and speciation, especially sympatric speciation. for example, when birds migrated from the mainland onto a certain island of the galapagos and became isolated for from the population on the mainland, gene flow, genetic drift, mutations, sexual selection, reproductive isolation and natural selection caused the population on the island to become an entirely different species from that of the mainland. this process continued from island to island to create a variety of species with a common ancestor

Answer 6

It has examples of different species adaptation to their environment. For example the finch has several varieties. There are birds that have longer beaks to be able to suck nectar from different types of flowers and some that actually have evolved to use twigs as tools to pull larvae out of trees. Also the turtle. Some turtles shells are more rounded with the area around the neck circled if they have to reach high for a food source. All of the adaptations of the animals on that island coincide with whatever the food source is that they compete for. It is most notable with the finch and the turtle.

Answer 7

Because they are isolated islands but yet they are close enough for animals to migrate from the mainland. Eventually they evolve on the islands due to the environment.

Answer 8

because they are seperate islands tht were formed by lava(didnt breakoff from sumtin) meaning any animals tht migrated there had 2 adapt 2 a brandf new surronding not 1 tht had existing things