Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution Is Wrong by Jonathan Wells

Author:Jonathan Wells
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-09-15T00:07:00+00:00

The increase in average beak size in several species of Galapagos finches after a severe drought-and its return to normal after the drought ended-is direct evidence for natural selection in the wild. In this limited sense, the finches provide evidence for Darwin's theory. As examples of the origin of species by natural selection, however, Darwin's finches leave a lot to be desiredthough this hasn't stopped some people from using them as examples anyway. But the only way they can do this is by exaggerating the evidence.

Exaggerating the evidence

Thanks to years of careful research by the Grants and their colleagues, we know quite a lot about natural selection and breeding patterns in Darwin's finches. And the available evidence is clear. First, selection oscillates with climatic fluctuations, and does not exhibit long-term evolutionary change. Second, the superior fitness of hybrids means that several species of Galapagos finches might be in the process of merging rather than diverging.

The Grants' excellent field work provided us with a good demonstration of natural selection in the wild-far better than Kettlewell's peppered moths. If the Grants had stopped there, their work might stand as an example of science at its best. Yet they have tried to make more of their work than the evidence warrants. In articles published in 1996 and 1998, the Grants declared that the Darwinian theory of the origin of species "fits the facts of Darwin's Finch evolution on the Galapagos Islands," and that "the driving force" is natural selection.

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