Mechanisms of Evolution
Storyboard Text
- Hey! I am a finch from the Galapagos Islands located in Ecuador. I am not just any finch, I am from the Floreanas! Maybe you don't know how I differ from finches from other islands, so today I'm going to tell you how the different kinds of finches have developed here.
- During this last period, the finches have undergone mutations, which are alterations in their genetic material, in order to adapt to the changes in the Galapagos Islands.
- This process, called adaptation, is the reflection of a mechanism called natural selection that has been occurring over generations of finch species.
- Natural selection is the method used by organisms such as my relatives, the finches of Isabela Island, to modify their genetic structure and adapt to the environment.
- As you can see, they are smaller than me, and their beaks are different as they are straighter than mine, that makes them easier to eat those seeds and plants from Isabela Island, not like me!
- We were forced to adapt and change in order to survive and reproduce. If we had not changed, we would not have been able to resist, for example, the strong El Niño phenomenon of 1982. Only the most accustomed and strongest of us survived these natural phenomena.
- My dad told me about this event. He said it was frightening, that it rained non-stop and that several types of birds stopped reproducing. Luckily, our genetic code changed, erased the unsuitable traits from our DNA, and we became fit enough to survive and reproduce, and here we are today!
- This caused the Galapagos finches to go through microevolution, which is when a number of birds undergo variations in gene frequencies. Thanks to that we are all here today and we are all different from each other, from our bodies to the size of our beaks. We have evolved!
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