[The Technical]

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON - Finches on the Galapagos Islands that inspired Charles Darwin to develop the concept of evolution are now helping confirm it — by evolving.
A medium sized species of Darwin's finch has evolved a smaller beak to take advantage of different seeds just two decades after the arrival of a larger rival for its original food source.

The altered beak size shows that species competing for food can undergo evolutionary change, said Peter Grant of Princeton University, lead author of the report appearing in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Grant has been studying Darwin's finches for decades and previously recorded changes responding to a drought that altered what foods were available.

It's rare for scientists to be able to document changes in the appearance of an animal in response to competition. More often it is seen when something moves into a new habitat or the climate changes and it has to find new food or resources, explained Robert C. Fleischer, a geneticist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and National Zoo.

This was certainly a documented case of microevolution, added Fleischer, who was not part of Grant's research.

Grant studied the finches on the Galapagos island Daphne, where the medium ground finch, Geospiza fortis, faced no competition for food, eating both small and large seeds.

In 1982 a breeding population of large ground finches, Geospiza magnirostris, arrived on the island and began competing for the large seeds of the Tribulus plants. G. magnirostris was able to break open and eat these seeds three times faster than G. fortis, depleting the supply of these seeds.

In 2003 and 2004 little rain fell, further reducing the food supply. The result was high mortality among G. fortis with larger beaks, leaving a breeding population of small-beaked G. fortis that could eat the seeds from smaller plants and didn't have to compete with the larger G. magnirostris for large seeds.

That's a form of evolution known as character displacement, where natural selection produces an evolutionary change in the next generation, Grant explained in a recorded statement made available by Science.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

Source

[sarevok]

I wonder what Kent Hovind has to say about this.

[chardog]

Microevolution <> Macroevolution

we are growing taller through each generation... we're evolving............

[Sniffkin]

Originally Posted by sarevok

I wonder what Kent Hovind has to say about this.

He says it all in his videos.
But then you'll never actually check what he has to say. You will just mock without knowing the facts and happily take other people's word for it, or accept the hate sites that quote him out of context or quote him from years ago on things that have since been proven wrong and are no longer used in his talks.

Originally Posted by chardog

Microevolution <> Macroevolution

we are growing taller through each generation... we're evolving............

But does nothing to suggest a common ancestor. Or evolution from an ape like being.

[SinisterKungFu]

Originally Posted by sarevok

I wonder what Kent Hovind has to say about this.

Whatever it is, it's bound to be completely made up, and not even remotely logical or valid.

[KingSnake]

Originally Posted by sarevok

I wonder what Kent Hovind has to say about this.

"Please bail me out of the federal prison" - that's all that no tax paying dipshit is saying nowadays.

[Sniffkin]

Originally Posted by sarevok

I wonder what Kent Hovind has to say about this.

He'd just laugh at the stupidity of it all. Followed by an explanation of why the finches prove absolutely nothing other than the effects of natural selection.

Natural selection does not prove evolution}
}From ape like ancestors or anything else.
Adaptation does not prove evolution. }

Just give up. You all know there is no proof of evolution from a common ancestor.
Creation has been proven to millions of people as pure undisputable FACT. It's just that they are all dead so you will have to wait to ask them.

[childrenofbodom]

luckily you still haven't gotten past the elementary stages of understanding evolutions definition.

it is not the theory of common descent. evolution is fact, at least by the definition scientists give it.

[Das Uberdog]

anti-evolutionists: stop using modern medicine, you hypocritical fucks. it's all based on theories that you think are false.

[Stoic1]

Derrrrr. God made humans! If we say otherwise it would undermine the entire foundation of religious beliefs and open the door to the acceptance that our fate is our own. And there may not be a pearly gate. Ieeeeeeeee!