Investigation

The Ecology and Evolution of the Galapagos Finches

Sam Donovan

The Galapagos Finches are one of the most widely recognized examples of research in evolutionary biology. This treehouse provides access to a variety of data resources that can be used to think about the causes and relationships underlying the distribution and other characteristics of the Galapagos Finches. The materials featured on this page come from an NSF funded educational project called Beagle Investigation Returns with Darwinian Data (BIRDD). You can learn more about BIRDD at http://www.bioquest.org/birdd/index.php.

Overview 

Below you can see that I have attached a couple of maps of the archipelago (one with and one without labels) and some data about the islands and distribution of the finches. In class I use materials like these to get the students to start looking at patterns in the data that might help them understand what is going on. Sometimes I give them acetate sheets with the blank maps printed on them and overhead pens so that they can represent a pattern from the data sheets directly onto the spatial representation of the islands.

Interesting Questions to Investigate

Materials

Galapagos Archipelago blank map

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

© 2005  BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

Click here for a full size image document iconView island_names1.gif

Galapagos Archipelago labeled map

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

© 2005 BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

Click here for a full size imagedocument iconView island_names1.gif

Table of island features

document iconView island_summary.pdf

Table of finch status

document iconView finch_status.pdf

 

Information on the Internet

Learning Information

About This Page
Frank Price, John Jungck and Jim Stewart have made significant contributions to the materials used in this project.

Sam Donovan
University of Pittsburgh

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Sam Donovan at

All Rights Reserved.

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