Charles Darwin's experiences in the Galapagos Islands in 1835
helped to guide his thoughts toward a revolutionary theory: that
species were not fixed but diversified from their ancestors over
many generations, and that the driving mechanism of evolutionary
change was natural selection. In this concise, accessible book,
Peter and Rosemary Grant explain what we have learned about the
origin and evolution of new species through the study of the
finches made famous by that great scientist: Darwin's finches.
Drawing upon their unique observations of finch evolution over a
thirty-four-year period, the Grants trace the evolutionary history
of fourteen different species from a shared ancestor three million
years ago. They show how repeated cycles of speciation involved
adaptive change through natural selection on beak size and shape,
and divergence in songs. They explain other factors that drive
finch evolution, including geographical isolation, which has kept
the Galapagos relatively free of competitors and predators; climate
change and an increase in the number of islands over the last three
million years, which enhanced opportunities for speciation; and
flexibility in the early learning of feeding skills, which helped
species to exploit new food resources. Throughout, the Grants show
how the laboratory tools of developmental biology and molecular
genetics can be combined with observations and experiments on birds
in the field to gain deeper insights into why the world is so
biologically rich and diverse.
Written by two preeminent evolutionary biologists, "How and Why
Species Multiply" helps to answer fundamental questions about
evolution--in the Galapagos and throughout the world."
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