A Little Birdie Told Me
Bad news for the fundanutters. Not only have they had to come to terms with the news that the world isn't flat, and there are no such things as witches (oops, seems they burned a few women at the stake unnecessarily!), Darwin's Galapagos finches are evolving before their eyes. From a story by AP science writer Randolph Schmid:
A medium sized species of Darwin's finch has evolved a smaller beak to take advantage of different seeds just two decades after the arrival of a larger rival for its original food source.The altered beak size shows that species competing for food can undergo evolutionary change, said Peter Grant of Princeton University, lead author of the report appearing in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
...It's rare for scientists to be able to document changes in the appearance of an animal in response to competition. More often it is seen when something moves into a new habitat or the climate changes and it has to find new food or resources, explained Robert C. Fleischer, a geneticist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and National Zoo.
This was certainly a documented case of microevolution, added Fleischer, who was not part of Grant's research.
Grant studied the finches on the Galapagos island Daphne, where the medium ground finch, Geospiza fortis, faced no competition for food, eating both small and large seeds.
In 1982 a breeding population of large ground finches, Geospiza magnirostris, arrived on the island and began competing for the large seeds of the Tribulus plants. G. magnirostris was able to break open and eat these seeds three times faster than G. fortis, depleting the supply of these seeds.
In 2003 and 2004 little rain fell, further reducing the food supply. The result was high mortality among G. fortis with larger beaks, leaving a breeding population of small-beaked G. fortis that could eat the seeds from smaller plants and didn't have to compete with the larger G. magnirostris for large seeds.
That's a form of evolution known as character displacement, where natural selection produces an evolutionary change in the next generation, Grant explained in a recorded statement made available by Science.
Those beaks were changed by the devil to make us doubt the word of god, doncha know? *snarfle*
Kim at July 14, 2006 1:55 PM
Amy, are you trying to tell us that a bird with a little pecker is going to wind up being a big player in the evil-ution game?
Bill Henry at July 14, 2006 5:17 PM
I think most creationists will laugh at this. You'll have to show them something much more impressive like gills or opposable thumbs before they buy it.
Nash at July 15, 2006 7:59 AM
Unfortunately, we don't really have the time:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/1/l_011_01.html
Amy Alkon at July 15, 2006 8:03 AM
Here's more on the eye:
http://home.austarnet.com.au/stear/evolution_of_the_eye.htm
Amy Alkon at July 15, 2006 8:04 AM
I think most creationists will laugh at this. You'll have to show them something much more impressive like gills or opposable thumbs before they buy it.
OK!
http://www.origins.tv/darwin/hominid.htm#Transitionals
Just fifty or so years ago, we didn't have many fossils to study. Now we have a LOT of them.
Radwaste at July 16, 2006 6:48 AM
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