The Mesozoic Era and Its Significance in Tectonic Activity
The Mesozoic era is the era of middle life, characterized by increased tectonic activity: the contours of continents and mountain chains were formed. Modern outlines of continents and oceans, marine fauna, and flora gradually developed in the Mesozoic era. The Andes and Cordillera mountain ranges of China and East Asia were formed.
Darwin’s ‘Galapagan Epiphany‘ and Its Impact on Biogeography
This period was significantly described by Charles Darwin, a naturalist and traveler, who was the first to conclude and substantiate that all species of organisms evolve from common ancestors (McCarthy, 2011). He has significantly contributed to the exploration of the Galapagos and called it the “Galapagan Epiphany“ (a narrative about the area investigation), which helped to expand and deepen the existing knowledge in biogeography.
Understanding Biogeography: The Distribution of Organisms on Earth
Biogeography is a geographical science that studies the peculiarities of the distribution of living organisms on the planet, both in the past and present. Charles Darwin’s five-week stay on the distant Pacific islands changed our understanding of life on Earth: the answer to the fundamental question of biology, about the origin of species and natural selection, was found. The name of this secluded group of islands in the Pacific Ocean is now inextricably linked with the name of Charles Darwin and the concept of evolution (McCarthy, 2011). Darwin spent only five weeks in the Galapagos, but these weeks were the apogee of his journey along the coast of South America, including overland stages.
Darwin’s Observations on the Galapagos and Their Influence on Evolutionary Theory
During the voyage, Darwin became convinced of the correctness of his theory of evolution. For 20 years, he returned again and again to his notes and observations made on the islands before finally realizing that those crucial weeks gave him the key to understanding the essence of the process of evolution – natural selection. In 1831, Darwin boarded the ship “Beagle“ in the official position of a naturalist (McCarthy, 2011). The entire Christian world firmly believed that God created the Earth and everything on it and has been preserved since then in a more or less unchanged form (McCarthy, 2011).
The Galapagos Archipelago’s Unique Fauna and Flora Linked to Biogeographical Patterns
The Galapagos’ fauna and flora are close to North America in their species composition, even though the island’s climate is very different from the continental one. It seemed strange to Darwin from the point of view of the idea of the divine creation of the world. It turns out that the species composition of the animal and plant world of the islands is more determined by distance from the neighboring continent than by climatic conditions. However, as noted by Charles Darwin in his “Galapagan Epiphany,“ if the archipelago were inhabited simply by immigrants from America, there would be nothing remarkable about it. Surprisingly, most terrestrial animals and more than half of flowering plants are not found in any other corner of the globe.
Species Variations Across the Galapagos Islands
The most remarkable feature of the Galapagos archipelago is that the neighboring islands are inhabited by various closely related species of animals and plants. When the locals told Darwin that turtles from different islands could be distinguished from each other by the shape of the shell, he did not believe them until he independently, during a voyage across the Pacific Ocean, studied the specimens of mockingbirds collected in the Galapagos.
Reference
McCarthy, D. (2011). Here be dragons: How the study of animal and plant distributions revolutionized our views of life and Earth. OUP Oxford.