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Natural Selection
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Implications
Terrestrial species on these islands wont have many
relatives nearby.
Neighboring islands will have close relatives
but new terrestrial species wont arrive on these islands from
the South American mainland very often.
most of the island species have had plenty of time to
differentiate from their nearest living relatives.
Charles Darwin
Darwin explored these islands from April through
October 1835.
Entire voyage of The Beagle: Dec 1831 - Oct 1836
Galapagos Endemics
The Galapagos today is an amazing place.
Animals live there that are found nowhere
else on earth.
This makes them endemic
Perhaps the most famous of the endemic birds are
the finches, of which there are 13 different species
Endemics
Among the kinds of animals
found here and nowhere else:
1 penguin species
1 giant tortoise species
1 marine iguana species
7 species of lava lizard
14 species of sea cucumber
1 species of sea lion
1 species of hawk
several species each of
mockingbirds, doves, owls,
flycatchers, and yellow
warblers
The Finches
The 13 finch species include:
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Seeds
A variety of seeds are produced on the island.
Finches prefer the softest seeds, which are the
easiest to open.
Prediction?
What do you think will happen to the
size of the finch population between
Years 1 and 3? (Remember, Year 2 is a
drought year.)
Sketch a rough graph of your prediction
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A:
B:
Time
C:
Time
D:
Time
Time
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Year 3 Data
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Evolution is:
A change in the frequency of an allele, such as an
allele for beak depth, is the basic definition of
evolution.
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Surprises?
Two things surprised the Grants:
1. Evolution could occur quickly enough to
observe within a few field seasons.
Surprises?
2. Evolution can occur at very small scales.
The Grants measurements were very careful.
The birds werent used to humans, and so were
easy to catch and measure
They couldnt see a difference in even 1mm
between two finches, but their measurements could
And due to those measurements, they could find
that 0.5mm was enough to make a difference
between survival and death in a drought year
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Heritability
Its important to note that beak size and shape is
heritable in these finches.
A bird with a large, deep beak will have offspring with
large and deep beaks.
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