Examples of Evolution: Darwin’s Finches

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My AP Biology Thoughts  

Unit 7 Natural Selection 

EPISODE TITLE: Unit 7: Darwin’s Finches

Welcome to My AP Biology Thoughts podcast, my name is Shrithik Sekar, Kyle Mason, Gabe Moriello, and I am your host for Unit 7: Examples of Evolution, Darwin’s Finches. In episode 116, we will be discussing this topic and how it relates to the AP Biology Curriculum. 

“We want to also thank our sources for the information presented in this podcast episode today which include (Britannica, Galapogosisland.org, and Crash course Biology on Youtube). You can find the citations and links to these sources in the show notes.”

Segment 1: Overview of Darwin’s finches 

 What are Darwin’s finches? 

  • Who is darwin? – Geologist and Biologist, who formed the theory of natural selection. Known for his contributions to Science of evolution. He studied many finches which were found in the galapagos islands located 1,000 km off the coast of Ecuador 
  • What were the finches? – These finches were a Group of 18 different species found in the Galapagos island. Darwin found the finches were all closely related with small direct observations that he made during his time in the Galapagos islands 
  • What did he study? -During his studies while in the Galapagos islands, he concluded the speciation of the finches which is known as the experiment of Darwin’s finches  
  • How does it relate to evolution? – It relates to evolution because it is an example of Direct observation 

Segment 2: Evidence that supports Darwin’s finches 

 Connection direct observation evolution 

  • What is direct observation of evolution? – Through observation, in small population sizes, it can be found many changes of one species to then create many subspecies. Through direct observation of evidence in almost every species. THis idea had to do with the last universal ancestor, how all species are alike in many ways and all stemmed from the same ancestor. These finches dna is super similar, but these small differences of dna created a difference in appearance which was found ny darwin. 
  • ( This begs the question of ) Why are the finches an example of evolution? All 18 species of Darwin’s Finches were originally one finch species on the coast of south america. However, Darwin discovered that this species branched off into 18 different species on the Galapagos islands depending on the finches’ environment 
  • What Key pieces of evidence did darwin find? – Darwin found the difference, fruit eating finches had wide beaks, insect eating finches had narrow beaks, and based on different factors of each finches environment each species had a different characteristic change. – GO TO Image 

Segment 3: Connection to the Course

The 5 pieces of evidence – of evolution. 

How do these ideas of evolution connect to our Biology class? 

 ( Relates to AP bio curriculum 7.2 – Natural Selection) 

( 7.4 – Population Genetics 

(7.6 – Evidence of evolution 

(7.7 – Common Ancestry 

  • Direct observation is only one example of evolutionary evidence 
  • 5 other examples – Fossils, Geological evidence, Change in DNA, Homologous structures 
  • All apart of either natural or physiological selection 
  • Natural selection is a part of the 5 fingers of evolution ( Sexual Selection, Genetic Drift, Gene flow, Mutation) 
  • Darwin’s finches show that adaptive evolution among the finch populations – the finches evolved different beak types depending on which food they ate, showing how natural selection is a factor in pushing populations to evolve

Thank you for listening to this episode of My AP Biology Thoughts. For more student-ran podcasts and digital content, make sure that you visit www.hvspn.com. Ceeeyaaa!!!!!!

Music Credits:

  • “Ice Flow” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
  • Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
  • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Citations:

Desmond, A. J. (n.d.). Charles Darwin. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Darwin. 

Darwin’s finches. Galapagos Conservation Trust. (2019, December 3). Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://galapagosconservation.org.uk/wildlife/darwins-finches/. 

crashcourse. (2012, June 11). Evolution: It’s a thing – crash course biology #20. YouTube. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3GagfbA2vo. 

crashcourse. (2018, October 1). Darwin and natural selection: Crash course history of science #22. YouTube. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfsUz2O2jww. 

In episode 116, we will be discussing this topic and how it relates to the AP Biology Curriculum.

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