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| Bite force variation in urban and non-urban Darwin's finches |
| Kiyoko M. Gotanda1,2, Sarah A. Knutie2,3, Ashley Love3, Theresa McCaffrey4, Glenn Tattersall1, Jaime Chaves2,5, Anthony Herrell6. 1Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada; 2Universidad de San Francisco Quito, Quito, , Ecuador; 3University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, United States; 4University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; 5San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, United States; 6CNRS, Paris, , France |
The Gal�pagos Islands are renowned for their unique, endemic biodiversity which inspired Charles Darwin to develop his theory of evolution by natural selection. In particular, Darwin's finches are an iconic example of adaptive radiation due to natural selection, where ~18 species have evolved from a single, common ancestor. Each species of Darwin's finches is able to specialize on niche specific food items, and the size and shape of their beak reflects this. On the Gal�pagos Islands, humans have direct and indirect effects on the adaptation of Darwin's finches. For example, the presence of humans in urban areas means the presence of novel food items that finches can forage on. For finches, foraging on human foods is not affected by the size or shape of their beak. Here, we looked at how bite force, a function of the size and shape of the finch beak, might be changing in response to urbanization and human foods. |