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A review by branch_c
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner
4.0
Anyone with an interest in evolution will know of the Galápagos finches, but before reading this book, I didn't realize their importance any more than Darwin did. Darwin's view was fairly simplistic - he thought there was one species per isolated island, each adapted to the conditions there, which would be interesting enough. But the real story, as observed by Peter and Rosemary Grant and described here by Weiner, is much more complex. It turns out that Darwin was right about natural selection, sexual selection, and evolution, but wrong about it not being observable in the short term.
The studies performed by the Grants and their colleagues demonstrate that natural selection happens, and can be observed from one year to the next, with selective pressures varying with the changing conditions of drought or flood. There are thirteen species of finches, each adapted to fill a niche for a particular food source and lifestyle, but the species grade into one another; they sometimes migrate among the islands and they sometimes mate across species lines to form hybrids.
Some may still doubt that small incremental changes in physical characteristics - such as a difference of fractions of millimeters in the size of a beak - can eventually lead to divergence and different species. If you're one of these people, you're in good company, because even Darwin himself had doubts on this point. But it turns out it can be observed in near real time, if only you're willing to look carefully enough, as the Grants have done. There are various other examples of this adaptive radiation mentioned in passing, including guppies in South America, sticklebacks in British Columbia, cichlids in east Africa, and fruit flies in Hawaii.
My only minor criticism of this book is the writing itself is ever so slightly dry - precise and clear, to be sure, but lacking a bit in excitement, like reading a well-written but overly straightforward news article. Also note that it was written in 1994, which is fine since much of the content is historical, but of course that leaves out any linking of these ideas and observations to more recent findings.
Anyway, this book is well worth reading; a fine addition to the growing volume of evidence that evolution has occurred by natural selection, and that it explains the variety of biology we see around us today.
Also recommended... Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, by Prothero, Why Evolution Is True, by Jerry Coyne, and from Richard Dawkins, the brief River Out of Eden and the lengthy but engagingly written The Ancestor's Tale.
The studies performed by the Grants and their colleagues demonstrate that natural selection happens, and can be observed from one year to the next, with selective pressures varying with the changing conditions of drought or flood. There are thirteen species of finches, each adapted to fill a niche for a particular food source and lifestyle, but the species grade into one another; they sometimes migrate among the islands and they sometimes mate across species lines to form hybrids.
Some may still doubt that small incremental changes in physical characteristics - such as a difference of fractions of millimeters in the size of a beak - can eventually lead to divergence and different species. If you're one of these people, you're in good company, because even Darwin himself had doubts on this point. But it turns out it can be observed in near real time, if only you're willing to look carefully enough, as the Grants have done. There are various other examples of this adaptive radiation mentioned in passing, including guppies in South America, sticklebacks in British Columbia, cichlids in east Africa, and fruit flies in Hawaii.
My only minor criticism of this book is the writing itself is ever so slightly dry - precise and clear, to be sure, but lacking a bit in excitement, like reading a well-written but overly straightforward news article. Also note that it was written in 1994, which is fine since much of the content is historical, but of course that leaves out any linking of these ideas and observations to more recent findings.
Anyway, this book is well worth reading; a fine addition to the growing volume of evidence that evolution has occurred by natural selection, and that it explains the variety of biology we see around us today.
Also recommended... Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, by Prothero, Why Evolution Is True, by Jerry Coyne, and from Richard Dawkins, the brief River Out of Eden and the lengthy but engagingly written The Ancestor's Tale.