More than 20 species of Hawaiian honeycreepers are descended from a goldfinch-like ancestor that arrived on one of the islands about 5 million years
ago from Asia or North America. The birds of the various species are similar in body size and shape, but differ in color and boak shape. How could so
many species have evolved from a single ancestral species?
Fill in the missing words.
natural selection
founder effect
geographically isolated
species
evolution
The ancestral finch founded a new population on one of the Hawaiian Islands. Due to the
allele frequencies of the first
small population on one of the islands chuld have differed from their continental goldfinch-like ancestors. The process of
resulted in adaptation and
of the island population into a new
over time. Some of the birds crossed to some of the other islands where they were
and
evolved into more species occupying different niches.