16.3+Darwin's+Finches_6th

==Welcome to Ben and Nate's SUPER STUPENDOUS Wiki  Darwin's Finches ==
 * 1) **Speciation in Darwin's Finches**
 * 2) **Founders Arrive**
 * 3) A few finches from the South American mainland blew to one of the galapagos islands
 * 4) The first Finches of the Galapagos Island(Before it had separated) were of the same species as each other. There was little differentiation.
 * 5) **Separation of Populations**
 * 6) When the islands split apart Finches were in isolated environments, and over time the environments differentiated from each other.
 * 7) As the environments changed **NATURAL SELECTION OCCURED!!!!!!**
 * 8) **Changes in the Gene Pool/ Reproductive Isolation/Ecological Competition**
 * 9) Because the environments were different from island to island, many of the finches were no longer as optimally designed for fitness as they were before.
 * 10) Now in a different environment, these finches were forced to compete to survive.
 * 11) As slight changes and mutations in the gene pool occurred, some individuals became better suited for their current environment.
 * 12) These individuals were more likely to survive and pass on their traits to the next generation.
 * 13) **Continued Evolution**
 * 14) Over time finches on different islands gained different traits suited to their enviroment.
 * 15) These different traits became so extreme that certain groups of finches became completely different species from one another.


 * 1) **BONUS FACTS**
 * 2) Darwin and the Finches
 * 3) Darwin had been inspired by such naturalists as Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
 * 4) Darwin liked the idea of species evolving over time but did not believe Lamarck's hypothesis of how they changed
 * 5) When Darwin saw all the different finches he thought that evolution must have already occured.
 * 6) He realized that at one point all the Galapagos islands must have been connected and all the finches may have come from a **COMMON ANCESTOR**
 * 7) This convinced him that evolution must have occured
 * 8) After reading on many new theorys of geology he knew that it must have taken enormous amounts of time for the islands to drift apart
 * 9) Using this collected data he hypothesized that species change gradually, not suddenly as individuals varied from generation to generation
 * 10) [[image:http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fj9qqNXm7mU/RyH969m9BQI/AAAAAAAAAbw/A_7yyc-8kvY/s400/finch.jpg]][[image:http://www.afreeman.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/finches.jpeg]]
 * 1) [[image:http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fj9qqNXm7mU/RyH969m9BQI/AAAAAAAAAbw/A_7yyc-8kvY/s400/finch.jpg]][[image:http://www.afreeman.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/finches.jpeg]]