Finches provide evidence that supports the theory of evolution?

Answer 1

Their beaks have evolved over time to be best suited to their function.For example, the finches who eat grubs have a thin extended beak to poke into holes in the ground and extract the grubs. Finches who eat buds and fruit would be less successful at doing this, while their claw like beaks can grind down their food and thus give them a selective advantage in circumstances where buds are the only real food source for finches.

Galapagos finches are the famous example from Darwin's voyage. Some of the finches had beaks adapted for eating large seeds, others for small seeds, some had parrot-like beaks for feeding on buds and fruits, and some had slender beaks for feeding on small insects One used a thorn to probe for insect larvae in wood, like some woodpeckers do. (Six were ground-dwellers, and eight were tree finches.) To Darwin, it appeared that each was slightly modified from an original colonist, probably the finch on the mainland of South America, some 600 miles to the east. It is probable that adaptive radiation led to the formation of so many species because other birds were few or absent, leaving empty niches to fill; and because the numerous islands of the Galapagos provided ample opportunity for geographic isolation. References University of Michigan (2005). Evolution and Natural Selection. Retrieved September 16, 2008, from www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/selection/selection.html

Answer 2

Finches, through their beak variations alone, provide strong anatomical evidences for evolution and the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Finches, through their Immigration to the Galapagos Islands and the adaptive radiation done there, show the biogeographical evidences for evolution and the theory that explains it.