Biology
Ecomorphology of Beak Shape and Diet in Darwin's Finches
Quick fact
On the Galápagos Islands, a single finch ancestor gave rise to over a dozen species, each with a beak shape precisely tuned to its diet—from cracking hard seeds to probing flowers for nectar.
Why this is interesting
Imagine a group of birds so closely related that they seem like one species, yet their beaks vary from thick nutcrackers to fine tweezers. What drove these beaks to become so different?