The Beak Of The Finch A Story Of

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As a result of this observation, he later wrote his theories and ideas in regards to what he thought were the actual origin of species, and which led him to write the publication, The Origin of the Species.

Although perchance rather considered disputable for the duration of his time, it led future scientists and biologists of the progressed era to investigate the matter further. Since Charles Darwin’s publication of The Origin of the Species, a number of scientists travelled to the Galapagos Island to see the real deal for themselves, and to at last disprove – or prove – Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection. Unfortunately no one was successful at either proving or disproving the said theory.

However, in the year 1973, Rosemary and Peter Grant set forth to Daphne Major, one of the islands in the Galapagos, to do their own observations and investigations. They were successful at proving Darwin’s theory. They camped and stayed in Daphne Major for a few seasons and after just a few months, witnessed for themselves evolution in full action – that is, they observed changes in the size and shape of the beaks of finches found on the island.

These birds are for the most part the same size, had the same brownish or black color, rounded tail that have a tendancy to get cocked to one side, and wings that are short and noticeably rounded. These were mutual characteristics of the finches on the island for the duration of the time Darwin basi set forth in the Galapagos; only their beaks aren’t the same. A few exclusions were noticed in coloring, but largely they were similar when it comes to body shape and form – again, except the beaks.

Changes in the finches’ beak shape and size were due to the finches’ adaptation to available food. The beak function is for eating, a tool that helps in survival. Each specie as a result of sure variations or changes in feed scarcity or abundance has evolved it is own distinguishable beak design to better suit their feed preference.

Some finches adapted to eating insects, consequently their beaks changed form to make them even more suitable and effective to eating insects. Other finches on the other hand, have adapted heavy and thick beaks that are more effective in cracking larger nuts and seeds. Other finches started out to have pointy beaks, because the pointier the beak the having little impact it is to pick little seedlings for food.

Later, Harvard Medical School researchers found the molecule responsible for the beak change. This protein molecule, called “calmodulin” regulates the gene that is involved in beak-shaping. Researchers found out that those with longer beaks such as the cactus finches have higher levels of calmodulin than those with shorter beaks. Calmodulin is then related with longer beaks. Finches with blunt beaks were found to have low levels of calmodulin.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

On a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos archipelago, where Darwin received his firstborn inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have expended twenty years proving that Darwin did not recognise the strength of his own theory. For amid the finches of Daphne Major, natural selection is neither rare nor slow: it is taking place by the hour, and we may watch.

In this dramatic story of groundbreaking scientific research, Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin’s finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself. The Beak of the Finch is an elegantly written and compelling masterwork of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould.

ReviewRosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend twenty years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos studying natural selection. They recognize each person bird on the island, when there are four hundred at the time of the author’s visit, or when there are over a thousand. They have observed when it comes to twenty generations of finches — continuously.
Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin’s finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.

From Publishers WeeklyWeiner follows scientists Peter and Rosemary Grant who, for the past 20 years, have studied the continuing evolution of the beaks of finches in the Galapagos Islands.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library JournalThis is an account of Peter and Rosemary Grant’s exploration on the microevolutionary modifications that occur in finch beaks as they adjust to environmental changes. Analysis of info accumulated from 18,000 birds on a Galapagos island over 21 years conclusively demonstrates that the pressures of natural selection are presently altering wild populations. Also, by incorporating others’ work on present-day evolutionary variations in fish, insects, and microbes, Weiner (The Next One Hundred Years, LJ 2/1/90) challenges the conception of evolution as a time-frozen process. Harmonized with the writings of Charles Darwin, this book provides the facts to fetch alive evolution as an ongoing process. Highly commended for frequent collections, but informed readers would do better with Peter Grant’s own Ecology and Evolution of Darwin’s Finches (Princeton Univ. Pr., 1986).
Frank Reiser, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Most helpful customer reviews

105 of 110 people found the following review helpful.
Positively Brilliant
By A music fan
Weiner’s The Beak of the Finch is a positively brilliant work on the topic of evolution. A great introduction for the student of evolutionary biology, or the layman. Weiner’s book destroys two of the greatest myths about evolution. 1. It’s slow. 2. It can’t be observed. The study of the Galapagos Finches not only proves the importance of evolution as a contemporary subject but as one that can be observed RIGHT NOW in the world around us. It’s almost astonishing to see how simple evolution truly is, how it occurs in quantifiable baby steps that we can see, if we only take the time to carefully observe. Weiner not only demystifies evolution, but makes it as a topic, thoroughly accessible to the interested layman. His prose is neither dry nor technical and in fact, makes for quite an enjoyable read. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

69 of 75 people found the following review helpful.
Darwin’s fascinating finches.
By G. Merritt
Although Creationists have long argued that evolution is “only a theory” which cannot be scientifically proven (see, for instance, THE HANDY-DANDY EVOLUTION REFUTER, Wheaton, Illinois), and that whatever processes the Creator used to create, those processes “are not now operating anywhere in the natural universe” (Duane Gish, EVOLUTION? THE FOSSILS SAY NO!), current evolutionary studies are now demonstrating what even Charles Darwin thought was impossible.

Darwin first introduced us to the finches that inhabit the Galapagos Islands in his ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES. Through their research since 1973, evolutionary scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have discovered that Darwin’s finches are even more interesting than Darwin ever dreamed, and reveal that Darwin may not have known the strengths of his own theory. Jonathan Weiner’s Pulitzer-Prize winning book provides a fine introduction to evolutionary science, while also delivering conclusive proof that evolution is happening “in jittery motion,” daily and hourly all around us (pp. 8-9). “The beak of the finch,” Weiner writes, “is an icon of evolution the way the Bohr atom is an icon of modern physics, and the study of either one shows us more primal energy and eternal change than our minds are built to take in. Yet like the vista of the atoms, the vista of evolution in action, of evolution in the flesh, has enormous implications for our sense of reality, of what life is, and for our sense of power, of what we can do with life” (p. 112). For this reason, Weiner’s brilliant book should be considered required reading.

G. Merritt

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
Turn around! Evolution is happening NOW!
By M. Nichols-Haining
Weiner sets the reader down with the ghost of Darwin, on the Galapagos Islands where the Grants have been studying since 1973. He introduces us to ‘Darwin’s finches,’ the same birds Darwin observed and wrote about in “Origin of the Species”.

We’re introduced to a populationg that is perfect for evolutionary studies–a limited number of species in a closed ecosystem on an isolated island. Darwin couldn’t have known what his observations would lead to so many years later, but Weiner shares with us the Grants meticulous study of over 20 generations of finches. Thousands of individual birds were measured, and their progeny tracked. Through this book, we see what they saw–evolution in action.
Weiner weaves facts into a nice story. The book is engaging and reads like a novel, so much so that my 13 year-old daughter is now reading it.

The conclusions (and no, this isn’t a spoiler) are that evolution by natural selection occurs and that selection can occur quickly (it’s not always a slow process). Weiner (and the Grants) also touches on speciation in fish populations, and bacterial and viral evolution.

This was required reading in an introductory evolution class in college. I hope, someday, students in high school will be assigned this book. It was excellent, and will probably be wrapped up as Christmas gifts for a few of my friends and family.

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