The Galapagos Islands.  They were the catalyst that enabled Charles Darwin to develop his theory of evolution.  In fact, the rich diversity of life there has always been the poster child for evolutionary synthesis.  And now, the islands are once again proving to be the hinge in scientific advancement.

WASHINGTON — Finches on the Galapagos Islands that inspired Charles Darwin to develop the concept of evolution are now helping confirm it — by evolving.

A medium sized species of Darwin’s finch has evolved a smaller beak to take advantage of different seeds just two decades after the arrival of a larger rival for its original food source.

The altered beak size shows that species competing for food can undergo evolutionary change, said Peter Grant of Princeton University, lead author of the report appearing in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

[…]

It’s rare for scientists to be able to document changes in the appearance of an animal in response to competition. More often it is seen when something moves into a new habitat or the climate changes and it has to find new food or resources, explained Robert C. Fleischer, a geneticist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and National Zoo.

This was certainly a documented case of microevolution, added Fleischer, who was not part of Grant’s research.

What a grand discovery!  Here is more proof that evolution is real science, that it happens even today, that it’s a sound theory that applies throughout the broad range of living organisms.

Another remarkable aspect of this demonstration of evolution is that it is generational.  Many wrongly believe evolution is always a slow, arduous process that spans millennia.  That is not always the case.  Based on the circumstances and biology involved, evolution can “leap” in certain cases so that a species unarguably evolves from one generation to the next.  That is precisely what happened here.  A single generation of birds was faced with a challenge which some of them could not survive.  Only those who already had some form of the necessary adaptation lived through the challenge while the rest died out.  That left a single generation of properly evolved animals to pass on that trait to the next generation—an entire generation born with the evolutionary adaptation to survive in a situation where many of their parents’ siblings could not.

Oh, and just to make the point…  Can someone positively and unequivocally identify a last-minute intervention by some vacuous designer who won’t save a child from famine or war but will certainly help finches change to meet with new competition from other birds?  Anyone?  No volunteers?  I didn’t think so.

This is evolution at its finest, poppets, and it’s a demonstration of natural processes to which we need not apply superstition.  That’s the beauty of real and true science: it stands on its own and requires no faith or belief.  There was no hocus-pocus here; just pure biological processes taking place just as expected and predicted by evolution.