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The Galápagos Islands are located off the west coast of South America straddling the equator. The Galápagos are located at the confluence of several currents including the cold Humboldt Current traveling north from South America and the Panama Current traveling south from Central America make the islands cooler and provide the perfect environment for the unique mix of wildlife that inhabits ...
The Galápagos or Galapagos Islands are named for their giant tortoises, [3] which were more plentiful at the time of their discovery. The Spanish word galápago derives from a pre-Roman Iberian word meaning "turtle", the meaning it still has in most dialects.
This is a list of animals that live in the Galápagos Islands. The fauna of the Galápagos Islands include a total of 9,000 confirmed species. Of them, none have been introduced by humans, and seventeen are endemic. [citation needed] Due to amphibians intolerance of saltwater, no amphibians naturally occur on the Galapagos Islands.
On the other hand, there is a considerable degree of resemblance in the volcanic nature of the soil, in climate, height, and size of the islands, between the Galapagos and Cape de Verde Archipelagos: But what an entire and absolute difference in their inhabitants!
Captive Galapagos tortoises can live up to 177 years. [5] For example, a captive individual, Harriet, lived for at least 175 years. Spanish explorers, who discovered the islands in the 16th century, named them after the Spanish galápago, meaning "tortoise". [6] Galápagos tortoises are native to seven of the Galápagos Islands.
Their work revolutionized scientists understanding of the pace of evolution, proving that evolution can be observed in 'real time'. Weiner describes years of painstaking field work on a desert island among the Galapagos, Daphne Major. Following years of intense drought or flooding, the Grants and their students were able to demonstrate all the ...
In evolutionary biology, adaptive radiation is a process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species into a multitude of new forms, particularly when a change in the environment makes new resources available, alters biotic interactions or opens new environmental niches.
The land iguanas of Galápagos vary in morphology and coloration among different populations. [6] In addition to the relatively widespread, well-known Galápagos land iguana (C. subcristatus), there are two other species within Conolophus—the Galápagos pink land iguana (C. marthae), of northern Isabela Island, and the Santa Fe land iguana (C. pallidus), of Santa Fe Island.