Darwin's Finches
Readings in the Evolution of a Scientific Paradigm
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Part 1: The Finches in Place
1. Grounding a Legend
2. Place: Historical Expeditions to the Galapagos
3. Land: A Thousand Accidents
4. A Confusion of Finches
Part 2: Adaptation and the Evolution of Diversity
5. What Matters? Variation and Adaptation
6. Diversity as Adaptation
7. Darwin’s Finches as a Case Study of Natural Selection
8. Sexual Selection in Darwin’s Finches
Part 3: The Origin and Maintenance of Species
9. Microevolution and Macroevolution: Does One Explain the Other?
10. The Evolution of Reproductive Isolation
11. Hyrbridization
12. The Genetic Basis of Variation: Molecular Genetics, Development, and Evolution
“Darwin’s finches are famous for what they have revealed about evolution. Understanding of how, when, and why they evolved has increased enormously since Darwin’s visit to the Galapagos in 1835. Kathleen Donohue has creatively helped the reader to learn how this happened by assembling an extensive and fascinating collection of writings spanning more than 150 years. The result is a treasure, a stimulating history for the biologist and biology for the historian.”
“This anthology provides a fascinating record of how a small assemblage of innocuous birds living on a remote island chain became the cornerstone for studies of adaptation and the origin of species. The papers Donohue has compiled, together with her descriptions of their biological and historical importance, give us an unusually clear picture of the evolution of species and of science itself.”
“The finches of the Galapagos are an iconic example of evolution in action, even more important to the research of scientists today than they were to the development of Darwin’s ideas. Kathleen Donohue has done a wonderful job in bringing together historical documents on the finches with contemporary papers from the cutting edge of research, illustrating how science progresses and how modern evolutionary biology is a synthetic, interdisciplinary field. Interspersed with her own insightful commentary, Donohue has provided a great service to both students and scholars.”
Biological Sciences: Ecology | Evolutionary Biology | Natural History | Physiology, Biomechanics, and Morphology
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