Kelsey Walker

Anthropology 1020

Evolution by Natural Selection Lab Report

INTRODUCTION
Charles Darwin is considered to be the father of evolution. He set
out as a naturalist on a voyage set to tour around South America in
1831. While touring many places he took interest in studying and
collecting data from each stop. (Abzhanov, 2010) The study of
Darwins finches first began in 1835 on the Galapagos Islands. Darwin
preserved the finches and brought them back to England for research.
Although the birds looked similar to each other, upon closer
examination, it revealed that they were different from one another in
how their beaks look and work. (Abzhanov, 2010) As Darwin dove into
further inspection and research of the 14 birds brought back, Darwin
and the ornithologist he was working with confirmed that all 14 were
indeed different and 12 of these birds were new species. Darwin
concluded:
These birds, although nearly identical in all other ways to
mainland finches, had different beaks. Their beaks had adapted
to the type of food they ate in order to fill different niches on the
Galapagos Islands. Their isolation on the islands over long
periods of time made them undergo speciation (Scoville, 2015).
Below is an image displaying a few different beaks Darwin examined.

(Scoville, About evolution ,

2015)
MATERIALS/METHODS
The purpose of our in class assignment was to learn a little more
about Darwins finding through an in class activity. We were each given
a different beak. The beaks came in many shapes and sizes. These
beaks included: close pins, chip clips, chopsticks, tweezers, large and
small hair clips, binder clips and tongs. After we were each handed a

beak we were timed to see which beak could collect the most food
(sunflower seeds) in a cup. This was to represent the concept that
those with favorable variations/characteristics are more likely to
survive. My hypothesis read: The birds with beaks as tweezers will be
more likely to survive than those with chopstick beaks. I felt that the
chopsticks would be hard and people using them would be slower at
handling the food than those using tweezers.
The class results for this activity
BEAK VARIATION
# OF ATTEMPTS 1 2 3 4
CHOPSTICK
5 5 4 3
CLOTHS PIN
5 4 4 2
LARGE HAIR CLIP
5 5 6 7
SMALL HAIR CLIP
5 5 5 5
1
TWEEZER
5 7 8 0
BINDER CLIP
5 4 2 2
CHIP CLIP
4 4 5 5
TONGS
1 1

are as follows:
5
2
2
7
5
1
1
2
5
1

6
2
2
7
4
1
2
2
5
1

The tongs were added after a few attempts to increase variation. I felt
like the results mirrored my hypothesis quite nicely. It was very
interesting to see which beaks did increasingly better, worse and fairly
neutral.
RESULTS
With the result of the activity it is clear to see that my hypothesis
is supported. Since favorable variations are more likely to survive than
beaks that are formed with tweezers should continue to increase in
frequency. Through replication of the same experiment it was easy to
quickly see which beaks were favorable and which beaks were
unfavorable.
DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION
The theory of evolution by natural selection means that favorable
variations increase in frequency within the population. Along with that
statement comes four underlying assumptions. These assumptions are:
1. Natural biological variation. Statement: There are eight different
beaks all shaped unique in their own way.
2. Inheritance by offspring from parents. Statement: Each beak
shape is inherited.

3. Competition, population size can increase substantially but the

food size stays neutral. Statement: In every generation there
were more finches born than can survive.
4. Individuals with favorable variations are more likely to survive
and in turn leave more offspring. Statement: The finches with the
tweezer beaks are more likely to survive than the finches with
chopstick beaks.
This activity showed all of these assumptions about the theory of
natural selection.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the

most intelligent. It is the one that is
the most adaptable to change.
Charles Darwin

Works Cited
Abzhanov, A. (2010). Darwin's Galapagos finches in modern biology.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society , 365 (1543).
Scoville, H. (2015, may 12). About evolution . Retrieved feb 4, 2016,
from evolution.about.com:
http://f.tqn.com/y/evolution/1/W/u/-/-/-/darwinfinches.jpg
Scoville, H. (2015, may 12). about evoution . Retrieved fab 4, 2016,
from Evolution.about.com.