Charles Darwin

Tag: Charles Darwin

On the Origin of Galápagos Finches

Researchers have long wondered where Darwin’s Galápagos finches originated from and have identified a few possibilities, but conservationists face a different challenge in protecting the archipelago’s biodiversity. Galápagos finches are famous the world around as a prime example of the process of evolution and adaptive radiation. Long before finches inspired Darwin, they were not “Galápagos finches” but simply […]

Written by on August 18, 2018

Galápagos Islands: A Little World Within Itself

Sarah Darwin travels with BBC news to relive her great, great grandfather Charles Darwin’s voyage to the Galápagos. In doing so, she learns about restoration efforts by Island Conservation and partners. When Charles Darwin traveled throughout the Galápagos Islands 182 years ago, he found a wide array of endemic wildlife living on the remote archipelago. Fast forward […]

Written by on September 1, 2017

Engineering Ascension Island

Further research on Ascension Island’s human-engineered ecosystem could generate insight into current environmental challenges. The challenge on Ascension Island is to maintain a balance of the new and the old. A novel ecosystem is an ecosystem engineered by humans. Over the last 150 years, non-native plant species were planted on the remote Island in the Atlantic […]

Written by on June 15, 2017

Evidence Suggests that Galápagos Finches Self-medicate, using Native Guava Leaves to Repel Invasive Insects

A new report released in the journal Nature examines never before seen self-medicating behavior in Galápagos Finches. Galápagos Finches served as inspiration for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in the 19th century. Today, these iconic birds, commonly referred to as “Darwin’s finches”, have drawn the attention of scientists once again–but this time it’s not because of the size and shape […]

Written by on October 20, 2016

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin

Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst […]

Written by on February 12, 2016