Princeton University , Princeton , NJ , USAPeter and Rosemary Grant have been studying Darwin´s finches on the Galápagos islands since 1973. Their fieldwork is designed to understand the causes of an adaptive radiation. It combines analyses of archipelago-wide patterns of evolution with detailed investigations of population level processes on two islands, Genovesa and Daphne. Their work is a blend of ecology, behavior and genetics. They have collaborated with investigators to estimate phylogenetic relations among the species of finches and their relatives on the continent and in the Caribbean, and to identify the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of beaks that vary so conspicuously among the species. Their earlier work has been published in two books. A third book, entitled How and Why Species Multiply, was published by Princeton University Press in 2008.
Rosemary was initially trained at the University of Edinburgh, received a PhD degree from Uppsala University, and was a Research scholar and lecturer with the rank of Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University until she retired from teaching in 2008. Peter is the Class of 1877 Professor Emeritus in the same Department, having trained at Cambridge University and the University of British Columbia. Before joining Princeton in 1986 he taught at McGill University and the University of Michigan.
Peter and Rosemary Grant
ABSTRACTEvolution of Darwin´s finches
The problem of explaining the origin of species has remained with us since Darwin´s time. In this lecture we will discuss what has been learned from studies of Darwin ´s finches on the Galápagos islands. Fourteen species have been derived from a common ancestor in the last two to three million years, none has become extinct as a result of human activities, and part of their environment is still in a natural state. We will discuss the ecological factors promoting diversification, how evolution occurs when the environment changes, what the barriers are to interbreeding, how they are inherited and what happens when they break down.
The modern conception of how species form still has a recognizable Darwinian signature, but has been transformed since Darwin´s time by findings from the study of behavior, ecology and genetics.
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