Talk:Darwin's finches
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The finches have different song melodies. Therefore they do not interbreed anymore? Could somebody elaborate a bit on this please? Are there subgroups which interbreed? Some pictures would be nice as well? Did somebody do a trip to the Galapagos Islands? Or the zoo? --JackH 10:41, 27 Sep 2003 (UTC)
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[edit] They do not interbreed....
they no longer interbreed at all, and the different songs are a likely result of this...i am traveling to the galapagos may 16, 2006 and will likely return with pictures....
- Oooh cool! Get as many as you can! Also, see if you can get some good pix of the islands in general...I'd like to undertake soon to create separate articles for each of the islands. Someday soon I hope also to start Wikipedia:WikiProject Galapagos, but that's for a day when I have more time... :-p and for discussing somewhere else... Anyone interested btw? drop me a note on my talk page. :-D Tomertalk 02:34, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Contradiction?
The opening sentence says there are 13 species of Darwin's Finches. Later in the first paragraph, it is claimed that Darwin believed most of these were not finches. But the quotation from Darwin's actual work quite clearly shows Darwin also saying "there are thirteen species" of finch...
As it stands, therefore, the article seems to be contradicting itself. Doubtless there's some explanation, but it's not obvious from the materials available. Perhaps someone who knows this field, or has access to the Sulloway book that's cited to support the claim that the whole thing is a myth, could clear this up? — Haeleth Talk 20:04, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
- I've tried to clarify this in the intro to the quoted passage. Inception of Darwin's theory shows the timing. ..dave souza, talk 01:26, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
The Vampire Finch
The Vampire Finch is not a subspecies, is is the same Geospiza difficilis. However, when it is found on Wolf and Darwin islands, it has to change its feeding habits in order to acquire freshwater, since there is none on Wolf or Darwin. There are other islands in the archipelago without freshwater, but this finch is not found there.
I believe this makes the Vampire subspecies irrelevant, but this interesting trait should still be available on the Vampire Finch page. Dabreeze 17:02, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] "Darwin's Finches Evolve Before Scientists' Eyes"
Apparently, the species Geospiza fortis has evolved a smaller beak in a short period of about 20 years. The article is here:
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060713_darwin_finch.html
I think it should be mentioned in the finches' wikipedia article, but I have no experience in editing wikipedia articles, and have no idea how to go about it.
Finches typically show evolutionary changes much quicker than, say a tortoise, because they live much shorter lives. This causes the "select" traits to pass through the generations much more quickly, showing physical differences much sooner.Dabreeze 18:52, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Geographic Isolation
I feel that it is important to refer to geographic isolation as it correlates with Darwin's theory of natural selection as geographic isolation played a critical role in the occurrence of natural selection in the finch species that Darwin encountered.
