A 25-year study of the medium ground finch on Daphne Major Island in the Galapagos. They observed and recorded data that clearly showed there was a shift in the average population beak depth following severe droughts between 1976 and 1978 and again in 1981. This example of the change in beak depth demonstrates that .....

MODERN THEORY OF EVOLUTION

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Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]

A 25-year study of the medium ground finch on Daphne Major Island in the Galapagos. They observed and recorded data that clearly showed there was a shift in the average population beak depth following severe droughts between 1976 and 1978 and again in 1981. This example of the change in beak depth demonstrates that ____

A	Change in an environment can result in a shift of an average population trait due to natural selection.
B	Evolution occurs so slowly that it is not possible to determine if it has occurred in less than a million years.
C	The environment in the Galapagos Islands has always favored bigger and bigger beaks in the medium ground finch.
D	change in an environment can result in a shift of population population trait due to natural selection the abundance of seeds, during and just after the drought, favored finches with smaller beaks.

Explanation:

Detailed explanation-1: -During 1977 there was a major drought on Daphne Major and many of the plants on the island produced few or no seeds. The medium ground finch population, which depends on seeds for food, declined drastically from about 1400 individuals to a few hundred in just over two years.

Detailed explanation-2: -A long-term study of finch populations on the island of Daphne Major has revealed that evolution occurs by natural selection when the finches’ food supply changes during droughts.

Detailed explanation-3: -However, the Galapagos finches helped Darwin solidify his idea of natural selection. The favorable adaptations of Darwin’s Finches’ beaks were selected for over generations until they all branched out to make new species. These birds, although nearly identical in all other ways to mainland finches, had different beaks.

Detailed explanation-4: -On the Galapagos Islands, Darwin also saw several different types of finch, a different species on each island. He noticed that each finch species had a different type of beak, depending on the food available on its island. The finches that ate large nuts had strong beaks for breaking the nuts open.

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