This is Bird Note.

Scientists have long thought that new species took a very long time to emerge.

This thinking has now changed dramatically, thanks to research done in the Galapagos, the site

of Charles Darwin's inspiration.

On the small island of Daphne Major, Rosemary and Peter Grant have studied the three species of native finches for decades.

One day in 1981, they watched a newcomer arrive, a larger finch from an island 100 miles away.

Before long, the new finch made it with one of the

finches already on the island. No one expected it, but this hybrid union produced descendants

different from any of the island's known species, different enough that the hybrid male's

songs didn't attract females of the other species.

And the beaks of the new finches had a unique size and shape.

Ultimately, the new line of offspring began to breed among themselves and became established on the island.

Blood samples showed the new birds were genetically unique.

There was now a new species of finch on the island. The Grants had a front

row view of the emergence of a new, unique species, and it had happened in just two generations,

faster than anyone had thought possible. For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.

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