There are now at least 13 species of finches on the Galapagos Islands, each filling a different niche on different islands. All of them evolved from one ancestral species, which colonized the islands ...

Island finches represent one of the most celebrated examples of how geographic isolation, ecological opportunity and genetic variation combine to drive rapid diversification. From the classic adaptive ...

The evolutionary term that applies here is adaptive radiation. That’s when a single ancestor diversifies into a burst of new forms, each filling a niche, exploiting a resource, or responding to a ...

Speciation, adaptive radiation, and evolution -- Daphne finches : a question of size -- Heritable variation -- Natural selection and evolution -- Breeding ecology and fitness -- A potential competitor ...

Plants in the genus Scalesia have evolved adaptive traits multiple times, but not always using the same genes. The photo shows the serrated leaves of Scalesia affinis (radiate-headed scalesia). The ...

The beaks of Darwin's medium ground finches can evolve to crush the shells of hard seeds. Credit: Andrew Hendry They say that hindsight is 20/20, and though the theory of ecological speciation—which ...

AMHERST, Mass. – They say that hindsight is 20/20, and though the theory of ecological speciation — which holds that new species emerge in response to ecological changes — seems to hold in retrospect, ...

Famously studied by Charles Darwin, the Galápagos Islands lie in the Pacific Ocean 600 miles west of Ecuador. They are rich in biodiversity and home to some extraordinary animals that have evolved in ...