There are millions of different animals that live on this planet and all of them have specific characteristics, behaviors, even food preferences that make each and every one of them unique. But have you ever wondered why? Why does my dog have the type of fur she has? Why do some monkeys have tails and others don’t? Why do most mammals have four legs, but humans have two? Well, all of the differences you see in animals arose through a process called Speciation. To see how speciation works and how different animals come into existence, check out the Backyard Biology episode below!
It may seem from this episode of Backyard Biology that speciation is something that occurred long ago in the past and that the animals we see today, even at the zoo, represent the end of the line when it comes to species in existence. But speciation is still occurring even today! Environmental pressures are constantly acting on animals, causing them to experience changes in their genes which ultimately lead to changes in appearance or behavior.
For example, let’s look a group of ground finches native to the Galapagos Islands. Galapagos is obviously the birthplace of Charles Darwins’ infamous discoveries of species, evolution and speciation, and in fact these famous islands are still providing information about how new species are formed. Currently, four species of finches are experiencing a dire fight against a surprising enemy: a fly. Yes, a fly. This fly is very similar to house flies you may find in your home, however the larvae of these flies are potentially very deadly for baby finches. See, once a finch hatches, these fly larvae crawl into the beak of the finch and start to eat. This can eventually lead to death of the finches, which obviously isn’t good for the birds at all. But something amazing is happening within the finch groups to prevent this predation from happening, they are experiencing speciation! Check out this podcast from Radiolab which goes into greater detail about this speciation process. The entire 60min podcast is extremely interesting, and I highly recommend you listen to it in its entirety, but if you’re scrapped on time, fast-forward to 45:10 to hear the story of the flies and the finches.
Thanks again for joining me on this episode of Backyard Biology! Feel free to leave your comments/questions/thoughts! Have a biology question? Awesome! Leave your ideas in the comments and if I’ll try to make an episode on the most popular ones!