Evolution is the topic for Tuesdays class discussion, so I think it might be interesting to share some experiences that I have had. I had the opportunity to live in Ecuador for two years in middle school. The Galapagos Islands are a territory of that country; so, while I was there, my parents took the family to go see them. I was fascinated by the wild life I saw there. This was the place where Charles Darwin first thought of his theory of evolution by looking at the finches (commonly known as "
Darwin's Finches"). Darwin noted that among the finches he saw there, all seemed to have beaks adept to the particular foods available to them on their respective islands.
It wasn't just the finches that Charles Darwin found interesting. As highlighted by popular culture in the movie "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (2003) the character Dr. Stephen Maturin is captivated by the flightless cormorants he finds on the Galapagos Islands. This small geologic hot spot island chain has numerous examples of creatures that have evolved from their parent species to better suit their environments. Here are some just to name a few
