Evolution Caught in the Act by Heidi Ledford

Nina Campos

Writing assignment 1

Evolution caught in the act

        In the article, “Evolution Caught in the Act” by Heidi Ledford goes over how the evolution of medium, large, and small beaked finches evolved in the Galapagos. This study showed how both the medium and large beaked birds ate the same time of seed and had no problem, up until 2003-2004 where there was a drought. This made both of the bird species population drastically decrease as they died of starvation. Leading to battle of the fittest of finches, the large beaked birds found it difficult to eat the smaller seeds that the medium size finches were able to get with their smaller beaks. This trait was then passed on to the next generation of finches. Seeing this shift of the finches made it clear that scientist have caught evolution in the act, called character displacement.

        This article relates to Darwin’s postulates by the competition of the two sized beaked finches and their battle of eating seeds. Next, would be the variation of the medium sized finch and larger one. Finally, the way both of them had to adapt to their conditions due to the drought, killing off the bigger beaked finches.

        Yes, there is clear evidence that natural selection had appeared as the large beaked finches were not able to eat as much as the small beaked birds were able to. Showing the decrease of the large beaked finches having a difficult time to adapt.

Works cited

Ledford, Heidi. “Evolution caught in the act.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 13 July 2006, www.nature.com/news/2006/060710/full/news060710-11.html. Accessed 19 Sept. 2017.

Grant, P. R., & Grant, B. R. (2006). Evolution of character displacement in Darwin's finches. science, 313(5784), 224-226.