Subject: Bird beaks
Date: Jun 21 14:13:00 1995
From: "Michelsen, Teresa" - TEMI461 at ecy.wa.gov



To anyone who has been overwhelmed by the recent discussion of species on
tweeters, I can recommend a great book I have been reading lately that
discusses the origin of species, natural selection, and sexual selection in
a readable, entertaining manner without sacrificing scientific integrity.

It discusses the research done over 20 years on "Darwin's" finches in the
galapagos islands, specifically focusing on beaks, and how they respond to
pressure from weather, seed availability and type, sexual selection, etc.
The research is fascinating and fun to read about (the Grants raised their
kids, not to mention generations of grad students, on the Galapagos!).
According to the authors, this research done by the Grant team is the best
and some of the first studies that showed evolution in action (as opposed to
just theorizing about it and deducing it from fossil records).

It's called "The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in our Time", by
Jonathan Weiner, published by Knopf, New York, 1994. And if it's too
simplistic for all you geneticists, I don't want to hear about it!! :-)

- Teresa Michelsen