Essay Questions

What makes the beak of finches (and all other species of birds) so significant to the seminal evolutionary factor known as natural selection?

Considering their unique capacity among all many different species populating the world, one might well think that wings would be the central anatomical issue at stake in the process of natural selection or at least the study of the evolution of birds. But, obviously, the book is not titled wings of the finch, right? As the author explains, it is not plumage or body size or skeletal construction that is identified as the chief diagnostic character for taxonomic classification of birds but the beak because it is the beak—and not physically similar wings—that is the avian equivalent of the human hand.

What all that fancy scientific language and comparison means is quite simply demonstrated: birds use their beaks to get to their food and getting to food is the single most elemental aspect of survival as a species. Since the shape of a beak will determine how a bird uses it to get to its food, avoiding extinction for birds is entirely dependent upon how well adapted their beak remains for successful completion of the task of getting to the food they intend to eat

What is the significance of these particular finches which form the centerpiece of the story?

The finches of the title are familiarly known as Darwin’s finches because he studied them during his exploration of the Galapagos Islands which changed the course of human knowledge. Ironically, however, the finches represent one of Darwin’s mistakes: assuming they all belonged to the same species, they were considered worthless as examples of natural selection and never even made into The Origin of Species. What makes the finches so significant is that is that Darwin’s mistake has been identified and corrected. Closer examination of the variations of beaks reveal they rare comprised of not just one but thirteen different species which identified by variations in their beaks which manifest as a variety of different diets.

What are some examples of the wild divergence in dietary requirements of the finches which has resulted from the evolutionary processes determining their variations in beaks?

The effect of evolution on the adaptive practicality of the beaks of common to each of the thirteen species is an astounding affirmation of the fundamental truth of evolution. Since all the finches of Galapagos call the same self-contained inescapable location home, by all anti-evolutionary logic they should all pursue the same food source. Not only is this not the case, but the differentiation in the sources of food they pursue absolutely requires that either evolutionary discretion is involved or the intelligent design of a creator with a truly wacky sense of the absurd.

Cactus finches don’t just eat cactus, they next and sleep and pollinate the plant. Another species of Darwin’s finches defy precedent by eating something that almost no other bird will: green leaves. And then there is the coolest kid on the Galapagos block, the vampire that sucks the blood of another bird on the island, the booby. Actually, they aren’t as cool as one might think: evolution has also turned these guys into cannibal zombies willing the drink of the blood of their own dead relatives. And it goes on, a pageant of proof of evolution that creationists still insist does not exist.