Evolution - In Real Time

The Voyage of the Beagle is enchanting. Darwin's thought process in starting to formulate the notion of evolution to explain how live evolves, is a revelation, a glimpse into the creative process every "artist" goes through when working out a new idea whether it be evolution, a jazz composition or the design of a new building. In this light, a terrific article tiled, In Darwin's Footsteps, an amazing discovery, made by researchers Peter and Rosemary Grant, proves that evolution can happen in real time.

Their goal, as they relate in their new book, “40 Years of Evolution,” was to study finches in the genus Geospiza — the birds that gave Darwin some of his first inklings of evolution by natural selection — and to try to reconstruct part of their evolutionary history. Instead, they made an amazing discovery.

After several years of meticulous measurements, the Grants and their students realized that the finches’ dimensions were changing before their eyes. Their beaks and bodies were evolving and adapting from year to year, sometimes slowly, sometimes strikingly, generation after generation. The researchers were watching evolution in real time, evolution in the flesh.

Seen below are pictures of finches who reside on Daphne Major, a volcanic island in the Galapagos.