Charles Darwin's Finch On The Galapagos Islands

The last experiment parameter changes were also to the island size and precipitation levels. Darwin and Wallace Island size were increased from 0.5 km to 1.0 km. However, the precipitation levels were changed to 40.0 cm from 20.0 cm on Darwin Island and reduced on Wallace Island from 20.0 cm to 10.0 cm. This experiment provided the most drastic results in beak size over a three hundred year span. The populations of the birds were almost the same number after two hundred years. But, the beak sizes were markedly dissimilar. According to the data, in the year 2210, the population of both islands had a difference of only 19 birds. However, the beak size for the Darwin Island finches was 19.93 mm and the Wallace Island finches had beak sizes of 24.29 mm.

Over the last several years, evolution has been playing an increasingly important role in determining how various species are evolving. This is because ecology will have an impact on how quickly a particular organism is able to adapt (with: the unique challenges for a particular environment). To determine the effect that this is having requires carefully examining different species over the course of many years. This will be accomplished by comparing these changes on Darwin and Wallace Islands. Once this occurs, is when specific insights will be provided that are highlighting the underlying challenges affecting the development of organisms. This is the point that these transformations will be evident among the various life forms. (Fasolo, 2011, pp. 53 68)

The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner explores evolution through the most famous examples in history—the finches of the Galápagos Islands. Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and the process of evolution are applied directly to what scientists refer to as Darwin’s Finches. Weiner follows scientists Peter and Rosemary Grant as they study the finches in real time on the Galápagos. Years of previous work, study and data is collected and analyzed. Different species of animals are observed and explained throughout history. The Grants have one goal, and that is to find the origin of the species, how organisms first began. They find that it really is about the “survival of the

The Galapagos Islands consists of thirteen major islands and over a hundred smaller islands located along the Ecuadorian coast. The islands are home to a variety of unique species such as sea lions, sharks, rays, and 26 different species of native birds. Thirteen of these birds are Darwin’s finches. These finches are known to be the “world’s fastest-evolving vertebrates” due to their bodies quickly adapting to the rapidly changing environment (Robertson, N.D. , para.1). Their DNA chemical makeup causes these adaptations to occur. The finch’s most noticeable feature is their evolutionary adaptations, due to the briskly changing environments.

After watching the video on Finch evolution, and completing the gizmo, I have found many correlations between the finch population, and the climate of the Galapagos Islands. The Finches beak size was dependent on the climate, and natural selection. The population of the birds increased and decreased throughout the years because the extreme climate changes and the process of natural selection.

On the Galápagos Islands off the coast near Ecuador we studied the behaviors of the animals, plants and environment on Daphne Major we found that the lack of rainfall during the wet season of 1977 caused most of the plants to produce less seeds and thus most of the medium ground finches died of starvation as their main food source had become scarce. Although the lack of seeds some finches were able to survive with their longer and bigger beaks. They were able to survive because their beaks were able to break open the harder and more plentiful Tribulus seeds that survived the dry season of 1977.

On the 3rd experiment for Darwin Island, the independent variable was increased to 78.cm, while the independent variable for Wallace Island increased to 68. cm. The precipitation increase at Darwin and Wallace Island, indicated a decrease in beak size. The finch beak size in 2096, was measured at 10.72 mm. The decrease of the finch beaks at Wallace island measured at 11.61 mm. The population at Darwin Island increased to 682, while the finch population at Wallace Island increased to 660.

There is only one way that the finches could have died in those numbers with the current circumstances, and that is starvation. This lack food was brought on by a terrible drought (see graph 1) that destroyed the plants that fed the Galapagos Finches. When the drought hit, most finches did not mate, and so stunted the growth of the population as well as kill many of their number.

The Galapagos Mockingbird nestlings typically start to reproduce a year after they were born. For instance, if they were born in 1533 they will start to breed in the spring of 1534 (Long, 2015)

The (Grant and Grant 2006) discussed the intraspecific completion between the G. fortis and its opposing and larger competitor, the G. magnirostris. Character displacement in the finches can describe the evolutionary changes they went through. As proposed by Lack in this paper, character displacement caused G. fortis to evolutionary develops smaller beak sizes in order to consume smaller seeds. As smaller seeds were prevalent, finches would consume those as a food supply. As small seeds started to diminish, large seeds were the seed of choice for them. Unfortunately, they were not able to adapt their small bill size to break these large seeds, causing problems for them. Therefore, this can be stated as the hypothesis of the paper where Grant and Grant tried to show that the beak size of the G.fortis evolved and changed due to ecological factors like competitor

One organism that darwin studied after his voyage to the galapagos islands is the iguana. Darwin described the iguanas as part of the lizard family. The iguanas helped Darwin figure out the secrets of his theory of evolution. Galapagos marine iguanas are the only aquatic lizard. Darwin suspected that the iguanas would be able to adapt to swim and dive down to catch their food to survive. He noticed that there were different species on different islands of the galapagos islands. These iguanas have larger limbs and larger claws so that they can cling to rocks and waves to help them survive. In general the iguanas are black in color so they can stay warm to survive. The noses of the iguanas are shorter so that they can use their sharp teeth to

Darwin concluded this was because the main island was so distance, that the finch’s that were already there adapted over time due to their different environmental surroundings, this is an example of adaptation. This suggest that Individuals that are poorly adapted to their environment are less likely to survive and reproduce.

The Galapagos Island described as a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean it is a province of Ecuador found about 1,000km off its coast, and its considered one of the world's most supreme destination for a good view. Its secluded land shelters a variety of plant and animal species, many found nowhere else. Charles Darin took a visit in 1835, and his examination of Galapagos species later inspired his theory of evolution. He discovered that the animals would adapt to each of there environments no matter what the island was. On this trip to the islands there was two animals that stood out to him, and those were the finches and the tortoises. They all had similar characteristics but they were all on different islands.

Darwin’s theory of evolution is the most commonly accepted theory because of the strong evidence that the theory is built on. One of the most famous examples of Darwin’s theory is the Galapagos finches. Darwin observed different finches from different islands of the Galapagos. He found that the finches from all the different islands had differently evolved beaks. Darwin

While on the Galápagos Islands, Darwin kept notebooks about all the species there, and he noticed the variety of tortoises on the island who were essential in explaining his theory of evolution. There are several species of tortoise present on the Galápagos Islands that are all very closely related, but slightly different. There are eleven presently surviving subspecies of Galápagos tortoises; furthermore, six of the eleven are found on different islands in the archipelago, and the other five are all found on a single island on five separate volcanoes with their own mini-ecosystems (PNAS). Although all of the species of Galápagos tortoise is different, they each have small differences that can include maximum adult size, shell shape, and the length of the neck and limbs. The tortoises of the islands are most closely related to the Chaco tortoises along the western coast of South America, and they most likely came to the Galápagos by “rafting” across the water (PNAS). Similar to the tortoises, Darwin observed that the Finches on the islands also had changed to match the environment. Spread among the islands were fourteen subspecies of finch whose