Had Different Shaped Shells Depending

The Galapagos tortoise is a model example of evolution, as noted by Charles Darwin during his journey to the Galapagos Islands. As mentioned in an earlier post, the Galapagos Islands are an archipelago, pregnant that there is water separating the various land masses. Equally Darwin journeyed through the Galapagos, he noticed that the diverse tortoises had different shaped shells depending on which island they lived on. There was no mixing of genes from island to island because it was far likewise difficult for tortoises to migrate through the water separating the land masses. Therefore, the tortoises began to evolve into different subpopulations, and the nigh easily noticeable consequence of the development was the differences in the tortoise shells. For example, some were saddle-shaped and some were dome-shaped. An example of the development of the various tortoise shells can be seen in the below paradigm.

Effigy 1: Various shell shapes of the Galapagos tortoise

Simply how the Galapagos Islands are an archipelago, Woods Park in St. Louis, MO can exist looked at in a similar mode. State masses are separated by buildings, golf game courses, and roads, which is essentially causing the turtles to migrate elsewhere. Turtles have been found in places they had never been seen before, such every bit the outer edges of Wood Park, and researchers in the St. Louis Box Turtle Project are wondering if this is due to loss of habitat because of homo bear upon. Whatever the reason, though, it is important to wonder that if the turtles can no longer migrate throughout the park, will the same evolutionary miracle happen to the box turtles equally it did to the Galapagos tortoises? Information technology is as well early to tell (because development is a very long process spanning over many, many generations), but possibly the box turtles of St. Louis Forest Park will begin to evolve into subpopulations with different adaptations that are meliorate suited for the area of the park that they inhabit. If conservationists do not do anything to help the turtles migrate and go along gene catamenia, then eventually, we will no longer run across any mixing of genes and passing downward of helpful adaptations in the turtles.