Question

Darwin’s finches are the best example of adaptive radiation. Justify.

Answer 1

Darwin’s finches are the best example of adaptive radiation because a single ancestral finch population that reached the Galápagos Islands gradually diversified into many different species. As the finches spread to different islands, they encountered different types of food and habitats, so natural selection favoured different beak shapes and sizes. Therefore, each species developed a specialised beak suited to its diet, such as seed-eating, insect-eating, and cactus-feeding finches. This evolution of many species from one common ancestor in the same geographical area to occupy different niches is called adaptive radiation.