The Evolutionary Development of Adaptive Radiations Essay

The Evolutionary Development of Adaptive Radiations - Essay Example The Galapagos Islands and the Hawaiian Islands are among places where adaptive radiations and convergence are noticed because these islands are relatively new than most Mainland and have radically different ecology and environmental niches. Wilson in his book the Diversity of Life, says that the 10,000 species of insects that now inhabit the Hawaiian islands have originated from a mere 400 species owing to adaptive radiation. In his book we find one of the best examples of adaptive radiation in the Hawaii’s. The Islands itself has different biodiversity and environment and genus Caconemobius have adapted themselves to different ecological niches in the same island. Some have left land existence and have become partial marine and live in boulders, another population of the same genus is blind and live in dark caves and yet another population of the same genus lives on lava flows. This shows that the different population of the genus adapted to the new environment and developed a whole new niche for themselves and gave rise to a new species.Cocos juvenile finches have the tendency to imitate feeding habits of warblers and sandpiper birds hence this is an embryonic state of radiation. If circumstances allow radiation Cocos finches will also meet adaptive evolution in the coming times.Another more livid example of adaptive evolution is the Lake Victoria cichlids. A study of these cichlids reveals the changes in each species and reveals the steps in adaptive evolution owing of changes in their environment.