1.5.2 Finch beaks
Many of you may have heard of the finch beaks of the Galapagos Islands which are so famously associated with Charles Darwin and his formulation of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Now, when this piece of information is analysed, it is incredible to consider that it is used as evidence for evolutionary theory and supposedly was instrumental in Darwin coming up with the theory of evolution and common descent. The story is that Darwin was on a voyage around the Galapagos Islands, and he observed various different types of finch birds over the separated Islands. He noticed subtle differences in the birds, particularly their beak sizes and shapes, and he found that the different types were located on different islands.
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the Great Dane’s and the Chihuahua’s descendants may no longer be able to technically reproduce with each other and would be determined new and distinct species. Now, let’s look at this point. Of course, this may be true but at present it is just a presumption. The fact is that all artificial breeding has shown so far is that certain characteristics of one species can be selected so that new variations within a species can be created which increases the diversity within that species. Artificial breeding has not been able to create a new species, therefore it has not shown that members of a species can evolve into another species. Subsequently, this is nowhere even close to acting as scientific evidence to support our default hypothesis. We want to know if a single-cell organism can turn into a man through a process of evolution, not whether certain traits of a species can be deliberately created or preserved. And, thinking about this logically, isn’t it likely that this would have been known even before the theory of evolution and artificial breeding, as people can see that offspring typically resemble a combination of both their parents? For example, tall parents are more likely to give rise to tall children, so similarly to artificial breeding in dogs, humans too can select certain characteristics and features by selecting their partner. If a dark skinned individual reproduces with a very fair skinned individual, it’s no great secret that their child is likely to have a mixed complexion which is dissimilar to both its parents. Also, is the variation seen within the dog species that remarkable? Okay, a Great Dane and Chihuahua might look miles apart but