Vertebrate Patterns on Islands

Abstract

Vertebrates from islands have motivated the foundation of evolutionary biology and ecology as we know it today. Darwin visited the Galapagos islands during his voyage on the HMS Beagle and encountered the finches, now named after him, that provoked his thoughts on evolutionary change. These finches suggested to Darwin that species were not immutable types, in contrast to the pure elements and compounds of chemistry. Pure water is the same everywhere. Each continent and island does not have its own form of water, but each continent and island may very well contain a unique and indigenous form of finch, or cactus, and so forth, implying that biological types are not universal and are subject to modification over evolutionary time. Thus, from its beginning, the scientific investigation of vertebrates on islands has emphasized evolutionary distinctness, and even today studies of ecological processes on islands include evolutionary processes as well.