2007-07-17 03:05:54 · 3 answers · asked by tom 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
It was the Galapagos Finches that fascinated Darwin to such an extent.
2007-07-17 05:17:10 · answer #1 · answered by reyansh 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Galapagos Islands were a Godsend to Darwin because they showed him a natural lab where the selection/evolution stuff he'd been thinking about was clearly demonstrated. Among the neat animals on the islands were representatives of a finch that had come over from the S. American mainland and settled on all the islands. The thing was, there were now several kinds of finch, all obviously closely related, but differing in relatively small ways - beak size and shape, body size, behavior, etc. Darwin figured that the original finches had diverged and adapted to fill a variety of empty niches, for example 'big seed'-eater and 'little-seed'-eater. Peter and Rosemary Grant went to the islands to study the finches several decades ago and have amassed a very neat set of data that pretty clearly show the process of evolution in action.
2007-07-17 03:30:20 · answer #2 · answered by John R 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Galapagos finches.
2007-07-17 03:12:58 · answer #3 · answered by JLynes 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋