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Liked It “Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection is the basis of the, The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner. Peter and Rosemary Grant are two scientists who studied the finches on the Galapagos Islands for decades to prove parts of Darwin’s original theories, true, false, or slightly off kilter....” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“This book explores the lives of two scientists who spent many years on the galapagos islands, very much like Darwin, studying finches. Their research conflicted with some ideas of Darwin. They devoted so much to the study of the different species on these islands. This book shows that evolution may not be a thing that occurs over time. The two scientists find evidence that it is occurring right in front of our eyes. ”
Antoneta Preldakaj wrote this review Tuesday, November 17 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Daphne Major is compelled as an Island full of diverse species and current natural selection. Upon reading the first few chapters of “The Beak of the Finch” it is apparent that evolution, Natural Selection, Variation, and Competition, will be the most prominent themes through out the novel. Part one in the novel includes a basic past of scientists who have been involved with research in the Galapagos Islands as well as their experiments and conclusions. Part two suggests natural selection in further detail as well as divergence and hybrid birds. Part three focuses on the affect humans have on the species and possible ways we can fix this. Jonathan Weiner describes Natural Selection in the first chapter as a process which the “not confined to a moment of creation in the dim past” (page 6). Natural Selection is the process of alterations and hereditary changes due to how a specimen is affected by the surrounding environment. Within the novel, we see how an environmental change, such as amount of rainfall can disturb the Finch population, ultimately changing the natural selection. The Grants were the first scientists on Daphne Major to witness the intense struggle for existence between Finch Species. As their fifth year in study, 1977, moved through, the rainfall had declined resulting in a drought. As a result of the drought, certain plants became less and less noticeable. The smaller finches had harder time finding food. They had to result in finding food amounts other plants such as the herb Chamaesyce that has sticky latex once the leaves are broken into. The drought was starting to affect the finches physically. “By June many of the birds weight were down as much as a quarter from the June before” (Page 74). The Grants also noticed that the feather quality of the Finches was very bad. By December, there were fewer than 300 Finches when there were 1400 in March 1976. The result of the drought was that the finches with the largest and deepest beaks had the highest population. Within the Fortis Finches, the surviving finches were only 5 to 6 percent larger then the dead. Even the smallest variations from offspring to offspring helped the Finches survive in time of draught. The environmental change in rainfall had a chain reaction into the mating rituals of the Finches. Since the larger Finches were the most likely to survive in times of draught, there were more males then females. The competition for a mate for males grew more intense. The ratio was 6 males to every 1 female. The finch watchers observed the pattern in the winning streak of the males. The darker colored and darker beaked male (the more mature males), and the males with the largest territory seemed to win over the females. During the drought, it seemed that nature was selecting the biggest beaked and largest finches for survival, which were most commonly males. ”
EMMELIA M wrote this review Saturday, November 14 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Although i do not agree with all of darwin's ideas, it was very pleasing to read how he came about his ideas. Some ideas of evolution i cannot reject because they are just scientifically proven. I can see how natural selection can work and whatnot. However, I do not believe that we ALL came from a common ancestor. Signs point to the fact that all life originated from water. However, I want to know how a microscopic organism could have evolved into something much larger that could swim around and then eventually onto something that could walk on land. There's a bunch of little details that seem to provide evidence for evolution, but when I look at the bigger picture, i feel that some theories of evolution are just plain rediculous. I agree with many of darwin's ideas about how new species come about, but i don't see how new ANIMALS could come about so easily that are so much different from each other. ”
DRION S wrote this review Friday, November 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“ The book, The Beak of the Finch by Johnathon Weiner allows the reader to understand the extensive research and effort that was put into Charles Darwins work on natural selection. Johnathon allows us to be apart of the original experiments by Darwin and explains in depth the research that Peter and Rosemary Grant did to prove Darwin experiment credible. While reading, I found myself to be very interested due to the fact that we have been learning about Darwin and his experiments of natural selection for years during science class.
DARRYN G wrote this review Thursday, November 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The book starts off with the beginning of Darwins experiments and his reasoning for embarking on his journey. The author starts off by informing us about his experiments with finches in Galapagos. Darwin was highly influenced by Karl von Linne. Von helped the prove that all creatures on earth are connected. The way that he did this was by classification. He separated species into kingdom, order, species, genera and classes. His classifications have been used ever since. But, Darwin's ideas differed from Von. He believed that the world started with one finch and through evolution and time, thirteen variations of the finch ended up on the island. Throughout his travels though Galapagos, Darwin collected specimens from a majority of the animals but, leaved them as is instead of classifying them. But, instead of going home with all of these specimens, he decided to think like a naturalist. Thinking as a naturalist, he took one male and one female and returned to England. Once time went on, Darwin decided that he wanted to take a different approach so he forgot about the finches and moved onto conduct a few different experiments. He decided to conduct his own experiments using Pigeons that he breed himself. He felt as if using his own birds in a set environment, that he would gain a lot more information. He became an expert on hybridization of plants and animals. After conducting these experiments, he began to find a lot of proof that natural selection exist. So caught up with his own experiment, he was never able to answer his original experiments about finches. Due to this fact, Darwin's finches were left as a mystery.
Throughout the book, the most important concept of the book was natural selection. This experiment was proved by a group of people. Darwin contributed to natural selection by his pigeons and it was later further proven by the Grants experiments. They both proved a different part of natural selection which ended up being very important. Natural selection is when an animal, through means of evolution, has the necessary traits to survive and produce. But, the grants proved it in a very interesting way. They measured the beaks of the birds and noticed that with a slight variation that a bird could survive. I learned that the world of birds depends on natural selection. The number of birds with a small beak will die out due to the fact that they can not provide food for themselves. In a matter of time, the only birds who will survive are the ones with the long beaks. Due to this fact, natural selection is very apparent. Another factor of natural selection is sexual selection. Birds mate based upon the specie. Each specie of bird has their own "mating" call. If a "mating" call is a little bit off, the female will reject the male. So do to natural selection, if the males mating call is changed, the species will die out do to rejection from the female.
I thought that this book was very interesting. I feel like i obtained a lot of knowledge while reading this book I always thought that the concept of evolution was very important. I also wonder how live in a world with so many different animals. We also have been learning about Darwin and his experiment for such a long time. When picking this book i had all of this in mind. I always felt like i knew a little bit but not enough to understand his process. I felt like this book was very interesting and informative. Overall i enjoyed reading the book and i feel like i obtained a lot of information. ”“Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection is the basis of the, The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner. Peter and Rosemary Grant are two scientists who studied the finches on the Galapagos Islands for decades to prove parts of Darwin’s original theories, true, false, or slightly off kilter. Charles Darwin didn’t fully know the depth of his evolution theories, and he didn’t know that his theories would continue to be analyzed, altered, and experimented for the rest of time. The first section of the book introduces Charles Darwin’s finches, and Peter and Rosemary Grant. Although unexpected, the finches became the object of examination in the Galapagos Islands. Darwin did not truly realize how important the Finch was, and did not even include them in “The Origin of Species.” Part Two, Weiner discusses the further research that the Grants performed. They explain what has changed over their twenty years of research, and changes that they have noticed about natural selection, and other aspects of evolution. Many other researchers in both nature and labs have concluded things very close to what the Grants had discovered. Weiner introduced Dolph Schulster, as well as other scientists who also spent a significant amount of time researching the Finch that was inexplicably left out of Darwin’s findings.
TESS W wrote this review Wednesday, November 11 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Finally in Part Three, Weiner explains how the research has been used in more recent years. We learn that the ideas of Natural Selection, and Sexual Selection are predominant today in genetics research, and DNA research. This section poses many questions for the reader, because the Grants make it seem as if we have a future ahead of similar to that of the Finches’. Finches were interesting to study because their adaptations proved that animals could change and alter over time due to the competition of their habitat. The Grants worked to show the strength of this knowledge. They worked so intently that they were able to discover that Natural Selection could even be seen. There are 13 different types of Finches on the Galapagos Islands, and although Darwin later published a book on natural selection, he did not include this species. The Grants began to truly research, and found that they all are similar in size, yet they have different beaks. As we learned in Biology in 9th grade, the beak was fitting to the size of the food that the Finch consumed. They all are the same color, with similar wings and a tail, however the difference is evident in the beak. The speed at which the Finch evolves is also due to the bacteria and anti-bacterial drugs that they are in contact with. All in all, the Finches separately adapt to their natural habitat, and what they consume and are in contact with. ”“I enjoyed reading this book because it was interesting how the smallest things in nature can have a bigger effect than we think. For example, the beak of a finch could be a millimeter shorter than another species of finch and this determine's the bird's niche, what it eats, what it can eat, and so forth. I was surprised that only a millimeter, could impact a bird's life so greatly. We can't even tell apart a bird's beak by a millimeter unless we measure it and for the birds, it decides their lifestyle. Also, some birds with medium sized beaks can open some large seeds but most of them don't since it takes more energy to open a large seed than a medium sized seed. If some of these medium sized birds had a beak a millimeter longer, their life would revolve around eating large seeds. This book is very specific and largely focused on natural selection so I would recommend it to anyone in high school who takes interest in natural selection. It is a very interesting book. It shows how animals struggled with the changing world. For example, fish at the bottom of a stream have more competition so they have darker spots so that predators don't notice them and they can blend in with the environment. At the top of the stream, it is exactly the opposite. The fish have almost none to very little competitors so he have brighter spots because they don't need to blend into the environment for protection. Also, the bright spots help them to attract the female fish and the fish at the bottom stream are less likely to be with a female because their spots aren't as bright. I really thought this was a good book and you can really learn about the world from it and how animals adapt to certain conditions.
AGNIESZKA W wrote this review Thursday, October 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
”“OUtstandingly written and fascinating!”
Rosie R wrote this review Friday, July 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Excellent information on evolution.... and why it is real. ”
Bert Couch wrote this review Friday, March 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“I read “The Beak of the Finch” for my Biology class. The book was mostly about the work of the Grant family with the Galapagos finches and how it proves the strength of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theories. Through the meticulous data and results of the Grant’s, the book shows that not only is evolution occurring quickly but that it can even be observed by the hour. The book was entertaining and easy to read and follow along, however the lack of a real story line made it difficult to stay focused on the author’s main idea or point. Nevertheless the educational value of this book was great and gave me a great background on evolution and Darwin for my biology class. Basically, the book follows Rosemary and Peter Grant on the Galapagos Islands as they track generations of finches, and discover that adaptability happens in small, distinct ways over a relatively short period of time. The book also takes time to focus on other scientist making just as exciting discoveries. Overall the book was well written and inspiring for depicting just how lasting Charles Darwin’s theory is. It makes a strong case for evolution, emphasizing that it is not something abstract or irrelevant to us now. I would recommend the book for any student taking a biology course or just any individual interested in science and learning more about evolution. ”
KATHY N wrote this review Sunday, January 25 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“This book recounted the scientific studies of Peter and Rosemary Grant, two incredibly influential scientists of evolution. The book is about their work on a small island, where all species are isolated. From this, the scientists are able to draw conclusions about the nature of evolution in the controlled system that is the island itself. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in evolutionary science or anyone who is interested in the life of the Grants.”
DANIEL S wrote this review Friday, November 7 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
