Why Did Some Finches Survive

In 1977 a drought reduced the number of small seeds available for the birds, forcing them to rely on larger seeds and nuts, which were difficult for birds with smaller beaks to open. The number of birds unable to eat reduced as they died and gave way to harder beaked finches. Within a couple of generations they had evolved larger beaks. In 2003 another drought struck the Galapagos and as there were many large beaked finches, the food source of nuts dwindled, making the ability to eat smaller seeds an asset. The numbers of larger beaked birds dwindled as food became scarce, leaving the smaller birds to survive and reproduce. Darwin’s theory was not well received when first written in On the Origin of Species, though many scientists today use it as a basis for research in evolution.

Some finches inherited longer beaks, this allowed them to open more seeds and access more food. Inheriting the longer beaks is not proven, but any animal inherited traits just like humans. So gathering this information we can conclude that they inherit their long beaks. Having a long beak was crucial in order for the finches to survive through the drought. Two finches, for example, that survived the drought, had bigger beak sizes. Gf69 had a beak length of 13.01 millimeters and weighed 13.41 grams. Another finch that survived the drought had a beak length of 10.97 and weighed about 12 grams. Yet a finch that didn’t survive had a beak length of 9.92 millimeters. All 10 finches that survived through the drought had longer beaks that averaged to 11.939 millimeters. This is a large beak size compared to a bird that did not survive with a beak length of 7.21 millimeters. A bigger beak length allows a finch to pry open harder seeds unlike the finches with smaller beaks. Some field notes were taken from the Grants, and they told us that a finch was spotted struggling to open a seed. For this reason finches with longer beaks were able to get food more easily than finches with smaller beaks. In conclusion, some finches had a longer lifespan than other for the reason that they had longer beaks. On top of that they were able to survive the

The Grants observed how the two ground finches preformed while attempting to obtain a seed called a Caltrop. Caltrops naturally have spikes around the seed as a defense against intruders. The Magnirostris did not have a hard time cracking open the Caltrop, with its hard, powerful jaw. However the Fortis would have to put more effort into cracking a single seed. The regular Fortis would try for six times and then give up, moving on to another seed. They will often move onto a different seed without trying. However the Fortis with a beak that is slightly deeper beak would attempt to crack the caltrop, and after a few tries, will succeed.

Medium ground finches had small beaks before but changed over time. This was caused because of evolution and survival of the fittest. When Charles Darwin came onto the island he wondered why there were many different species of the finches, then he hypothesized that a group of finches might have came in from South America. Then splitting of the finches and adapting into their environment to have a better chance of surviving. The finches beaks helped with Darwin thinking

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 poop of the Galapagos Penguin fertilizes the land allowing for the healthy growth of plants which are consumed by other animals that live on the islands. If the Galapagos Penguin became extinct, it could possibly cause the extermination of local plants such as the “Ulva” leading to the extinction of the animals which rely on them. These include the “Parrot Fish”, Sally Lightfoot Crabs, “Five-Spotted Anthia” as well as many more species of land and sea

F. Divina, "Game Birds and Fowl." In Foods of the Americas, 224. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2004.

My "To Kill a Mockingbird" project is a Finch family tree. My rationale for this project was to better understand the Finch family and how everyone was related. The Finch family has many friends and neighbors that aren't apart of the family, but are treated like family. For this project, I believe I deserve an A.

Everyone makes mistakes whether he is young, old, child, or adult. Some are faced with harder, more serious and, possibly life-changing decisions. Two great examples of individuals who were faced with many life-changing decisions are Bartle and Sterling, characters from the book The Yellow Birds, which was written by Kevin Powers. These two are soldiers in battle accompanied by a memorable man, and fellow comrade, Daniel Murphy. The reader finds out that Daniel Murphy, Murph in short, was brutally murdered at the end of the book. Bartle and Sterling find Murph’s mutilated body and decide to burn the crime scene and send his body down the river (Powers 210-211). Why did they do it? Was covering up Murph’s death the

Darwin has listed different names for each bird, they are all variations of Finches, apparently descended from a common ancestor. However, each bird has a different length beak and many are differently shaped to allow them to more efficiently eat the available fodder. Coincidentally, Mr. Darwin failed to catalog specifically where each bird came from and had to ask the ship’s captain to supply this information along with his collection to Mr. Gould for identification and cataloging. An interesting part of the conversation between Mr. Darwin and the ship’s captain is the captain’s argument for the fixity of species, that each one was created by God exactly the way it was, and placed on each island, and that it is heresy to say that they came to be there any other way.

After looking at the abbreviated Stone Finch organizational chart, 2008, which is give in the case study. We can see three distinct groups. These groups were the employees of Water Products Division, Solutions Division and the Subsidiaries. The Subsidiaries division was recently formed in 2004. The communication between all the divisions was very less. It looked like more importance was given to the employees of the Subsidiaries as they were directly in contact with Billings. The reward structure of the organization looked bias towards the employees of the subsidiaries as they were given stocks of the company. The reward system for the rest of the divisions was not mentioned in the case study. The decisions making of the company was much centralised.

The Savegre Biosphere is a diverse environment located in Costa Rica. Among the 59% of birds flying through the area, the bird that is mostly known by tourists and residents is the Quetzal. The Quetzal is known as the specialized fruit eating bird. Quetzals are small and loud but fascinate many with their brightly colored feathers and body (WWF). As a defense mechanism, the Quetzal will use its green body to blend into the green forest background. Quetzal’s are omnivores. Their daily diet is typically fruits and drinking water from bromeliads, but occasionally feast on insects, lizards and frogs (WWF). Preferring to live high up in the trees, they nest themselves right in the fruit trees they eat from. The fruits that Quetzals eat are from

In the Galapagos Islands there is an island named, Daphne Major, this island plays as the host of the Galapagos finches. In 1976 - 1977 there was an absolute near extinction of these finches. This is because of the drought of 1976 and 1977 (see figure 1). While the drought made the Finch population dwindle there was a hidden trait that was helping some survive, and that is beak size. Why did the larger beaks help those fortunate Finches survive? Because the only plants that survived where plants like the Tribulus, which produces hard shelled seeds. While there was an abundance of hard shelled seeds there was a shortage of soft shelled seeds. The finches that had the larger beaks weighed more, for example, survivors weighed approx. 12.5g to 17.5g with beak sizes going from 10.5 to 13.6(for evidence see figure 2. This reduced the population because the Finch’s with the smaller beaks couldn't open the harder seeds and had to scavenge for soft seeds which were very rare. The finches with small beaks, then died from starvation

Krichman (2009) examined the ancestry of flightless birds (Gallirallus philippenesis) through the usage of genetic testing that were sampled throughout a range of ancestral species. This was to test a model of speciation where flightless birds were thought to have evolved from flying birds

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