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Sorting Finch Species Click and Learn Key

This document discusses how different species of Galapagos finches are identified and classified. It describes two similar species, the medium ground finch and cactus finch, and how they are distinguished by their beak sizes and song patterns. The document involves an activity where users listen to finch songs and examine spectrograms to sort the finches by species.

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Michael McIntosh
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1K views3 pages

Sorting Finch Species Click and Learn Key

This document discusses how different species of Galapagos finches are identified and classified. It describes two similar species, the medium ground finch and cactus finch, and how they are distinguished by their beak sizes and song patterns. The document involves an activity where users listen to finch songs and examine spectrograms to sort the finches by species.

Uploaded by

Michael McIntosh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SORTING FINCH SPECIES CLICK AND LEARN

Study online at https://quizlet.com/_9ag4sh

1. How do finches recognize members of Song and appearance (body size,


their own species? shape, and color)

2. The Galápagos islands are considered They are considered to be


to be "young" islands. Explain what this "young" islands because they
means. were formed 0.5-5 million years
ago (it is considered young in ge-
ologic time)

3. The medium ground finch (Geospiza a. Species


fortis) and the cactus finch (Geospiza
scandens) are similar in size and ap-
pearance.
a. As you can tell from their scientific
names, they belong to different species.
What taxonomic ranks do they share?

4. b. Which physical trait varies the most b. Their beaks (one eats seeds,
between these two species? the other cacti)

5. c. The medium ground finch and the cac- c. The medium ground finch eats
tus finch are adapted to consume differ- seeds, so if an environment had
ent types of foods. Can you think of a an abundance of seeds it would
situation in which the medium ground be at an advantage; if there would
finches would have a survival advan- be a deficit of seeds it would be a
tage over the cactus finches? A disad- disadvantage.
vantage?

6. From the map, in what ocean are the The Galapagos islands are in the
Galápagos Islands found? Where are South Pacific Ocean, southwest
they in relation to the United States? of the United States.

7. Zoom all the way in to Daphne Major. De- Daphne major is a volcanic is-
scribe its appearance in two sentences. land, 120 meters in elevation, in
the Galapagos islands. The island
is tree-less, eroded by sea, and
looks bowl-like.

8. What is a spectrogram? What variables A spectrogram is a photograph-


are on the x- and y-axes? ic, other visual, or electronic rep-
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SORTING FINCH SPECIES CLICK AND LEARN
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_9ag4sh
resentation of a spectrum. The
x-axis represents time, and the
y-axis represents frequency.

9. Listen to the three examples of sound I observed sound wave patterns.


and related spectrogram. Make one ob- Then, I realized waves vary de-
servation about each of the three spec- pending on the sound. The con-
trograms. clusion I came to, was the higher
the pitch, the higher the wave.

10. When do the finches on the Galápagos Finches learn their songs in
Islands learn their songs? From whom the young stages of their lives.
do they learn their song? The birds learn their songs from
neighbors, rather than their par-
ents.

11. How easy was it to sort finches by It was fairly easy since you could
song? categorize them based on pitch.

12. When the spectrograms were revealed,


did you have to change the grouping of
any of the finches? ______ Which char-
acteristic did you find it easier to sort by,
song or spectrogram?

13. Did seeing the photos help you sort the


finches? Explain

14. Did you change the grouping of any


of the finches after zooming in on the
beak?

15. At the end of the exercise, which trait


allowed you to more easily tell which
birds belonged to the same species?
(The species name is not a trait!)

16. Explain why the offspring of a cactus


finch and a medium ground finch would
look like an intermediate between the
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SORTING FINCH SPECIES CLICK AND LEARN
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_9ag4sh
two birds, but the song would not be an
intermediate.

17. Provide a possible explanation for why


hybrids are rare and not as fit as either
parent species.

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