Question

Describe speciation in the Galapagos island finches in terms of the five concepts of natural selection

Answer 1

Speciation can be defined as the phenomenon in which new plants or animals is created. Speciation occurs when the normal species gets separated and goes to another place and there develops some unique characters according to the environment in which they are living. Darwin's finches had variation in their shape and size of the beaks that helped them to survive in different conditions.

The five concept of natural selection are:

• All the individuals have some kind of variation in them. These were change in the shape and size of the beaks.

• These traits were constantly passed on to the next generations from parents to the children.

• High rate of population growth, the number of finches grew in number.

• The differential species struggled for local resources and survived.

• These individuals reproduced and the mutated species kept on passing generation by generation.

Answer 2

On these islands, Darwin observed that species of organisms on different islands were clearly similar, yet had distinct differences. For example, the ground finches inhabiting the Galápagos Islands comprised several species with a unique beak shape . The species on the islands had a graded series of beak sizes and shapes with very small differences between the most similar. He observed that these finches closely resembled another finch species on the mainland of South America. Darwin imagined that the island species might be modified from one of the original mainland species. Upon further study, he realized that the varied beaks of each finch helped the birds acquire a specific type of food.