In 1834, Charles Darwin stepped off the HMS Beagle and set foot on the Galapagos Islands. Over a period of 5 weeks, Darwin studied the unique animals indigenous to the island. Upon careful analysis, he understood that what was once thought to be one type of finch was in fact 18 different species with remarkable diversity in beak form and function. The finches had undergone an evolutionary process called adaptive radiation, in which organisms rapidly diversify from a common ancestor in response to a change in environment that makes new resources and thus new niches available. In the case of. . .
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