Q. The finches of Galapagos islands provide an evidence in favour of :
(a) Special creation
(b) Evolution due to mutation
(c) Retrogressive evolution
(d) Biogeographical evolution
Solution :
Correct option : D Biogeography is the study of the locations of different species through space. Biogeography reveals that species that appear to be closely related tend to be geographically close as well, as though groups of species had a common origin at a particular geographic location and radiated out from there.
Several species of finches live on the Galapagos, each species inhabiting a different island. The species seemed quite similar to one another and to a species on the mainland, leading Darwin to hypothesize that the different species of Galapagos finches were descended from individuals in the mainland species that had reached the islands sometime in the past. Thus the finches of Galapagos islands provide an evidence in favor of biogeographical evolution.
