Daphne Major

Daphne Major is an island just north of Santa Cruz Island in the archipelago Colon, commonly known as the Galápagos Islands. It consists of a tuff crater, devoid of trees, whose rim rises 120 metres above the sea.

An intensive study of Darwin's Finches was conducted here by biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant over a period of 20 years. They examined the behaviour and life cycles of finches, with the results strongly supporting Darwin's theory of evolution.

References

• Drought and the Demography of Darwin’s Medium Ground Finches on Isla Daphne Major, Wendy E. Sera, Baylor University. Accessed 2007-04-21.
• Peter R. Grant and B. Rosemary Grant. 1992. Demography and the genetically effective sizes of two populations of Darwin’s finches. Ecology 73(3): 766–784.
• Jonathan Weiner. 1994. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN 0-679-40003-6.