Hybridization Analysis in The Beak of the Finch

Hybridization is the crossing of species. It sometimes takes place in nature, such as when horses and donkeys mate to create mules (male offspring) or hinnies (female offspring), though oftentimes these hybrids are born sterile or struggle to find mates when they are old enough to breed. But advantageous hybridization has been observed in lots of species, such as in fruit flies in Hawaii and more recently in finches in the Galápagos.

Hybridization Quotes in The Beak of the Finch

The The Beak of the Finch quotes below are all either spoken by Hybridization or refer to Hybridization. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Natural Selection and Evolution as Ongoing Processes Theme Icon

Half a millimeter can decide who lives and who dies. Since these slight variations are passed down from one generation to the next, the brood of a small beak and a medium beak would be likely to have intermediate beaks, equipment that would sometimes differ from their parents' not by one or two tenths of a millimeter but by whole millimeters, maybe by many millimeters. […] Daphne Major is not a forgiving place. A line of misfits should not last.

[…]

That is why the Grants are so puzzled now.

Related Characters: Jonathan Weiner (speaker), Charles Darwin, Peter and Rosemary Grant

Related Symbols: The Beak of the Finch

Page Number and Citation: 123

Explanation and Analysis:

The arrival of human beings means a new phase in the evolution of Darwin's finches, and its directions are still unclear. […] Rosemary and Peter do think they see something odd about the finches of Santa Cruz. The birds around the research station, and in the village, seem to be blurring together. The Grants have never made a systematic study of this: but to their eyes the species almost look as though they are fusing. "They just sort of run into each other," says Rosemary. There is no difference between the largest fortis and the smallest magnirostris.

Related Characters: Jonathan Weiner (speaker), Peter and Rosemary Grant (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 239-240

Explanation and Analysis:

You don't find situations that chaotic under natural conditions, but you do find them in the havoc that human beings bring in their train. […] Thus, our disturbances hybridize both the environment and the species.

We are hybridizing the planet.

Related Characters: Jonathan Weiner (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 242

Explanation and Analysis:

Hybridization Term Timeline in The Beak of the Finch

The timeline below shows where the term Hybridization appears in The Beak of the Finch. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The Interconnectedness of Species and Ecosystems Theme Icon

Hybridization and Specialization Theme Icon

...surprised and excited by an anomaly—the finches are pairing off with finches of different species. Hybridization—a crossing of species—is taking place. And what’s even more exciting to the Grants is that... (full context)

Hybridization isn’t unprecedented in nature, and in fact animals of different species breed all the time—such... (full context)

...1.3. “Something has changed since the flood,” Weiner writes—and the Grants’ research on the finches’ hybridization has the potential to unlock the mystery of the origin of species. (full context)

...massive El Niño—encourage animals to hop between islands and carry new seeds to different places, hybridization continues to rise. And different species, flung together for the first time, begin to breed,... (full context)

Darwin himself believed that “the possibility of making distinct races by crossing [or hybridization] has been greatly exaggerated.” But the Grants now suspect that selection and crossing work together—that... (full context)

...The Grants have witnessed these swings numerous times over the decades, and they’ve concluded that hybridization between species “provides favorable conditions for major and rapid evolution to occur.” (full context)

Hybridization among birds was once thought to be very rare—but among the 9,600-odd species of bird... (full context)

...idea that new species of finches could still take off—an evolutionary response to the increasing hybridization could yet happen, and a new species could form. As Weiner listens to the Grants... (full context)

...botanist Edgar Anderson argued that human beings’ presence in new places would lead to increasing hybridization of those places’ plants and animals. The hybrids will require increasingly odd habitats for “optimum... (full context)

...and floras are brought together, the barrier systems between them break down—and in chaotic times, hybridization helps evolutionary mechanisms to work faster. Humanity is disturbing habitats and intensifying the pressures of... (full context)

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Hybridization Term Analysis

Hybridization Quotes in The Beak of the Finch

Hybridization Term Timeline in The Beak of the Finch

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