40 Years of Evolution: Darwin’s Finches on Daphne Major Island

Where were you in 1973? Rosemary and Peter Grant had just started a project that today forms the content of one of the most intriguing books I have ever read. I have to say upfront that this is not an easy read, being quite scientific and technical in parts, however, help can be found in the substantial glossary.

The stars of the book are the Geospiza finch populations, commonly referred to as Darwin’s finches, on Daphne Major with the lead role going to G. fortis, the Medium Ground-finch. The book takes you on our star’s evolutionary journey from heritability to speciation, via natural selection, competition and hybridisation. The chapter on speciation is particularly good and demonstrates this key function of evolution happening right before your eyes.

But what of the future? Well the book covers that too; but I am not about to give the end of the story away. Read it for yourself. You’ll be glad you did! 

Book reviewed by Allan Archer