40 years of evolution : Darwin's finches on Daphne Major Island
- Peter R. Grant and B. Rosemary Grant.
- Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 
- Copyright notice
- Physical description
- xxxii, 400 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps ; 25 cm
Biology Library (Falconer)
QL696 .P246 G7324 2014
- Unknown QL696 .P246 G7324 2014
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-387) and index.
- Speciation, adaptive radiation, and evolution
- Daphne finches : a question of size
- Heritable variation
- Natural selection and evolution
- Breeding ecology and fitness
- A potential competitor arrives on Daphne
- Competition and character displacement
- Variation and introgression
- Long-term trends in hybridization
- Long-term trends in natural selection
- Speciation by introgressive hybridization
- The future of finches on Daphne
- Themes and issues
- Appendixes. Appendix 1.1. Daphne plants ; Appendix 1.2. Measurements of finches ; Appendix 1.3. Other species of Darwin's finches ; Appendix 3.1. Mapping breeding locations ; Appendix 3.2. Annual changes in measurements ; Appendix 5.1. Extra-pair mating ; Appendix 5.2. Visitors and predation ; Appendix 9.1. Variation and mortality ; Appendix 10.1. On the dangers of extrapolation ; Appendix 10.2. Plumage ; Appendix 11.1. Samples of measurements for selection analyses ; Appendix 13.1. Identification of breeders ; Appendix 17.1. Nestling beak color polymorphism.
- Publisher's Summary
- Renowned evolutionary biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant have produced landmark studies of the Galapagos finches first made famous by Charles Darwin. In How and Why Species Multiply, they offered a complete evolutionary history of Darwin's finches since their origin almost three million years ago. Now, in their richly illustrated new book, 40 Years of Evolution, the authors turn their attention to events taking place on a contemporary scale. By continuously tracking finch populations over a period of four decades, they uncover the causes and consequences of significant events leading to evolutionary changes in species. The authors used a vast and unparalleled range of ecological, behavioral, and genetic data--including song recordings, DNA analyses, and feeding and breeding behavior--to measure changes in finch populations on the small island of Daphne Major in the Galapagos archipelago. They find that natural selection happens repeatedly, that finches hybridize and exchange genes rarely, and that they compete for scarce food in times of drought, with the remarkable result that the finch populations today differ significantly in average beak size and shape from those of forty years ago. The authors' most spectacular discovery is the initiation and establishment of a new lineage that now behaves as a new species, differing from others in size, song, and other characteristics. The authors emphasize the immeasurable value of continuous long-term studies of natural populations and of critical opportunities for detecting and understanding rare but significant events. By following the fates of finches for several generations, 40 Years of Evolution offers unparalleled insights into ecological and evolutionary changes in natural environments.
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- Forty years of evolution
- 9780691160467 (hardback : alk. paper)
- 0691160465 (hardback : alk. paper)