The Grants and Finch Evolution

The finches were first brought to scientists attention by

• Isaac Newton

• Rosemary and Peter Grant

• Charles Darwin

• Albert Einstein

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The Galápagos islands are considered to be "young" islands because they formed from volcanic eruptions less that 5 million years ago.

• True

• False

Which is the most likely explanation for the presence of 13 different finch species on the Galápagos Islands today?

• Several different species of birds migrated to the islands and the 13 finch species that currently live there are the only species that survived.

• Many years ago, a small population of a single bird species migrated to the islands and evolved into the 13 species that live on the islands today.

• Each of the 13 species has migrated to the islands at different times over the years.

• A single bird species migrated to one island at around the time of Charles Darwin’s voyage to the Galápagos and then migrated to all 13 islands.

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What happened in 1977 that affected the finch population?

• volcanic eruption

• new predators arrived

• excessive rainfall

• a terrible drought began

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What trait made the greatest difference between life and death of the finches?

• weight

• beak length

• wing length

• leg length

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Beak sizes of 200 ground finches in 1976 are shown in the graph. What is the most common beak depth in 1976?

• 8.3 mm

• 8.8 mm

• 9.3 mm

• 9.8 mm

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The graph shows the beak sizes of finches in 1976 in gray bars and the finches that survived the drought of 1977 in black bars. What was the most common beak size of the survivors?

• 8.8 mm

• 9.3 mm

• 9.8 mm

• 10.3 mm

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What happened in 1983 that affected the population of finches?

• Another drought

• Excessive rainfall

• Volcanic eruption

• New predators arrived on the island

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How did the Grants test their hypothesis that differences in birds’ songs can keep finches from breeding with members of other species?

• They watched which birds were mating with each other and listened for the songs the birds were singing.

• They recorded birds singing on the island of Daphne Major for an entire breeding season to see which type of song was used more often by each species.

• They played the songs of medium ground finches and cactus finches through a loudspeaker when individuals from both species were present, to see which species responded to each song.

• They played the song of the medium ground finch to medium ground finch males through a loudspeaker to see if they would respond; they then played the song of the cactus finch to cactus finch males to see if they would respond.

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Different finch species have beaks of different shapes and sizes. These different beak structures are evidence of

• different finch species adapting to different environments over many generations.

• different finch species with different beak structures coming to the Galápagos Islands from the mainland.

• different finch populations being evolutionarily related

• individual birds changing their beak characteristics so that they could feed efficiently.

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