A newly-published study of South American finches reveals some fundamental secrets to accelerated evolution and speedy speciation ...

Discover the science behind natural selection and evolution. Get the facts on survival of the fittest with ExtremeTech’s comprehensive breakdown.

Galápagos finches use their beaks to crush seeds and sing songs, so what happens to their musical trills when their beaks change to respond to new menus available under drought? Jeffrey Podos and ...

UK New species of Galapagos finch ‘can arise after just six consecutive droughts’ The Darwin finches, a group of about 18 species of passerine birds, are well known for their wide diversity in ...

They say that hindsight is 20/20, and though the theory of ecological speciation—which holds that new species emerge in ...

Since Darwin’s finches use songs to attract mates, the song changes related to beak evolution could be a catalyst behind ecological speciation.

Six consecutive droughts is all it takes for a new species of finch to emerge in the Galapagos islands, scientists have said.

In 2017, British evolutionary biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant reported they had witnessed a new finch species evolve in real time in Daphne Major, a small island in the Galapagos, and the process ...

The beaks of Darwin’s medium ground finches can evolve to crush the shells of hard seeds (Andrew Hendry/University of Massachusetts Amherst/PA) Six consecutive droughts is all it takes for a new ...

Now, scientists have identified a key connection between ecology and speciation using one of their signature traits– songs. A major ecological change like drought can alter their songs so much ...