A group of Darwin's finches, Geospizinae, from the collection of the Charles Darwin Research Station on Galapagos, showing a range of beak sizes and s
A group of Darwin's finches, Geospizinae, from the collection of the Charles Darwin Research Station on Galapagos, showing a range of beak sizes and shapes. Darwin originally misidentified the finches when he collected them on the Galapagos, assuming them to be from very different groups. He also failed to label them very well, which he always regretted. Artist/ornithologist John Gould identified them for him and alerted him to them as a new group of 12 closely related species of ground finch. The name 'Darwin's finch' was applied by Percy Lowe in 1936. The finches were famously studied by David Lack in the 1940's and more recently by Peter and Rosemary Grant. The Grants have provided the best evidence of evolution within a human time-frame with species of finch found on Galapagos' Daphne major and minor islands.
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Photo credit: © PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: beagle, beak, darwin, darwins, david, evolution, finch, fitzroy, galapagos, geospizinae, gould, grant, john, lack, origin, peter, speciation, species, specimens, tanager, taxidermy, taxonomy
