How an Icon of Evolution Lost Its Flight
Scientists have discovered some of the genetic changes behind the useless wings of the Galapagos cormorant.
In 1835, the Galapagos Islands shaped the thoughts of a young British naturalist named Charles Darwin, and helped inspire his world-shaking theory of evolution. For that reason, the islands have become something of a Mecca for biologists, who travel there to see the same odd creatures that enthused Darwin.
“I like seeing wildlife in general, but some of these creatures have become iconic in evolutionary biology,” says from the University of California, Los Angeles, who visited the Galapagos in 2012. The famous finches, with their well-adapted and variously shaped beaks, are especially famous, but Kruglyak found them underwhelming. He was more
