18 TIMES EVOKE THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI

SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2022

‘Galapagos species are exuberant and unique

— their evolution mirrors the kinship of life’
T William H. Durham is professor emeritus of evolutionary anthropology and biology at Stanford University.
he Galapagos archipelago —
13 large islands and islets, 970 How Charles Darwin Evolved
kilometres from mainland Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke, he discusses the ‘secret recipe’ of the Galapagos Islands: In September 1835, Charles
Ecuador in the Eastern Pacific Ocean Photos: iStock

— is celebrated globally. The BBC
estimates 97% of its mammals, 80% of
its land birds, 42 reptile species, 70 fish
species and over 30% of its flora are
endemic, found nowhere else on Earth.
In 1984, UNESCO designated the Galapa-
gos Biosphere Reserve to protect these
treasures of biodiversity. The equator
runs through these islands, created over
millions of years by volcanos. While
sailors, whalers and buccaneers visited,
the rocky terrain dissuaded settlers,
allowing its swimming iguanas, flight-
less penguins, giant tortoises, rainbow-
coloured crabs, etc., to roam fearlessly.
In 1835, Charles Darwin arrived. In
his ‘Voyage of the Beagle’, the naturalist
described the Galapagos’ topography (‘a
broken field of black basaltic lava’ on
Chatham Island to the ‘green and thriv-
ing vegetation’ of Charles Island) as ‘pos-
sessing a wide range of character’, each
island showing differences in similar
finches, reptiles and plants. This diver-
sity intrigued Darwin, who then argued
that instead of being created as unchang-
ing, species kept adapting to new
conditions. ‘Evolution’ was a revolution
for it presented life scientifically, freeing
minds from irrationality. In 1959,
Ecuador established a national park
across 97% of the Galapagos — but its
lovingly protected species now face
climate change, rising sea temperatures,
El Nino droughts and dryer winds
impacting Galapagos penguins, seals, etc.
Once, these animals lived sheltered in
their Eden, free of humanity. Today, as
they face major human impacts,
Darwin’s thoughts echo, ‘What havoc the
introduction of any new beast of prey
causes in a country…’
However, as Times Evoke’s global
experts emphasise, the Galapagos can
be saved through multiple methods,
including utilising its evolutionary
history and backing conservation ef-
forts. The UN’s SDGs support these and
so should we, for the Galapagos are sym-
bols of life on Earth being much greater
than our daily existence. The Galapagos
— which sees exactly 12 hours each of
sunlight and enigmatic stars — is both
question and answer to why we are here
and how we should live. Join Times
Evoke in exploring the Galapagos — and
that treasure island deep within you.
Photos: iStock
What is the core of your research?
For 40 years, I’ve been researching the
Galapagos to understand its flora and
fauna and human impacts upon this.
My focus has been on studying the
evolutionary history of species and
using that knowledge to mitigate
conservation challenges today.
What is, as you write, the Galapagos Islands’
‘secret recipe’?
It is a few key variables — the first is
plates or the movement of tectonic plates.
The second is pressure,
coming from magma
emerging from the Earth’s
surface, pushing through
those plates, creating
volcanos. The third is
persistence — this hotspot,
where this magma-plume
penetrates these plates,
has been active for over 20 million years.
Hence, there is this cluster of volcanic
islands, with millions of years of
continued presence, in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean. Also, a strong pattern of
wind and water pushes towards this clus-
ter — organisms caught in those streams
are shuttled out to this isolated archipel-
ago. That coincidence of plates, pressure
and persistence give Galapagos species
their unique and exuberant nature.
Which species intrigue you the most there?
I’m most surprised by Galapagos daisies
— there are many genera but one, scalesia,
has 14 species which rival the 14-odd
species of finches found in the Galapagos.
I'LL STRIKE A POSE: The relatively small
Galapagos sea lions or Zalophus
wollebacki are mostly social beings,
often unafraid of people and living
languorously on warm beaches
Darwin, a young geologist
BLOWING IN THE WIND and naturalist, arrived on the
Beagle ship at the
The marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) is endemic to the Galapagos Islands, the only reptilian being
Galapagos Islands
on Earth which swims and forages in the sea. Growing upto five feet in size, these unique beings
beyond coastal
now face climate change impacts like El Nino cycles
Ecuador. Darwin
Pre-1900 Post-1900 was struck by
Recent extinction rates are Has been 183 587 the vivid differences he saw
100 to 1000 times higher than mammal extinctions between similar tortoises —
the natural background rate per million species- ‘Galapagos’ means tortoise
years since 1990 — plants and birds across the
islands. Why were beings from
This is 1830 times the same species so different?
higher than we'd
expect The road to enlightenment
183 was paved with errors — Darwin
We'd expect 0.1 first couldn’t
extinctions per 132 accurately identify
million species- the 14 different
years 74 85 finches he found
51 on the Galapagos.
John Gould, an ornithologist,
0.1 helped him see these were
diverse species. Darwin then
Background rate Birds Mammals Amphibians
understood all species were not
Data Courtesy: Pimm et al (2014) & IUCN via Our World in Data
created forever in their present
form — they could diversify
These daises are all incredibly different, puzzling evolutionary history of both is ter, this kills marine algae which iguanas
Darwin thus presented the
some with small, slender leaves, some solved by mutual co-evolution. eat. So, as the hypothesis goes, the iguanas
pathbreaking idea that the
huge. Yet, they’re all from a common Understanding such history helps have evolved to a substantial body size
origin. As a child, I grew daisies or sun- us meet conservation challenges now. with stored fat to last during El Nino- creation of different species
flowers in northern The tree finches and caused algae shortages. The hypothesis on Earth was
Ohio — I was so proud daisies are inter- correlates with human impacts manifest not one single
if I could grow a two- A TIME TO EVOLVE dependent or rely on in El Nino cycles — this suggests humans event — it was a
foot-high daisy. But in each other for food are now influencing the evolutionary process of change
Galapagos, they grow over 60 feet. Charles and dispersal. So, to protect Galapagos trajectory of beings in the Galapagos. from one form into many
Darwin had a theory about this. If daisies daisies, conservationists also need to different ones. He now knew
are competing with other low-lying plants help the finches who can’t survive with- What is the ‘kinship of life’ Galapagos shows? the Galapagos finches, starting
for light, water, etc., natural selection out the giant daisy canopies. This incredible place shows how we from one mainland species, had
would favour their height increasing over humans are just another twig on the adapted to the islands’ diverse
time. But these daisies came to Galapagos Do Galapagos species face climate change? tree of life. The things we marvel at — availability of soft and hard
as scrubby desert plants with substantial Consider the marine iguanas — we sus- our resilience, strengths and talents nuts with their own changing
seeds that lack any conveyance to disperse. pect these have evolved a larger body size — exist in other species too. Humans series of beak shapes and sizes
So, how did they get to these islands? And under changing climate. Across the are not a qualitatively different thing Darwin called such
how did they go from being a desert scrub islands, there is a pattern of regularity in on Earth. We are part of a giant
differences ‘natural selection’,
plant to rich, tall, moist forests? their size. But now, some are less than half community. Insects, animals, plants and
which allows adaptable species
It occurred to me that some of the size of the others. The differences are trees are our relatives — real-
to compete, survive, reproduce
Darwin’s finches, which he thought were parallel to changes occurring between ising this could temper our
all seed-eaters living on the ground, also 1905 and the early 2000s — across 100 behaviour towards them. and thrive. In periods of limited
live in canopies — it seems possible that years, we’ve seen a resources and harsh
the finches, who were evolving from their size expansion. BLUE IS THEIR NEW BLACK: conditions particularly,
ancestors, might have carried the seeds This is interesting The blue-footed booby or he wrote, this variety
of the scalesia, who were also evolving because when the El Sula nebouxii bird of the of evolving abilities
in height, to different islands. I think the Nino phenomenon hits, Galapagos famously proves crucial to the
tree finches and daisies may have or warm waters settle has turquoise feet continuation — and
co-evolved over half a million years or so. around Galapagos, which can range from abundance — of life
This shows the magnificent association which normally pale blue to deep Research: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Scientific
American, Smithsonian Magazine
between a plant and an animal, where the has very cold wa- aquamarine

Galapagos penguins are unique, the only penguins living just About 1,600 flightless cormorants are endemic to The Galapagos is home to the Great and Magnificent
above the equator, about 2,000 concentrated in the western islands Fernandina and Isabela. The Galapagos cormorant frigatebird species. Males sport a bulbous red throat
of Fernandina and Isabela. Relatively small at just 30 cms, these has evolved swimming abilities with only vestigial pouch and their wingspan lets them fly without one flap
flightless birds are the world’s rarest penguin, nesting in crevices wings now but very strong legs which help it catch — however, unlike other seabirds, their feathers aren’t
within the islands’ coastal lava. While small, Galapagos penguins fish. Living for upto 50 years, this bird still holds waterproof, so they touch the sea only with their beaks.
are strong adaptors — they can withstand the equatorial sun and up its small wings to dry in sunshine, just like They are often compared to pirates, snatching up
reach 35 mph when hunting for fish. However, El Nino events have its flying cousins. The male cormorant is also a flying fish or ‘borrowing’ food from other birds in flight
endangered this breed which now faces dwindling fish to eat romantic — he brings his partner gifts of seaweed Research: National Geographic, WWF, IUCN

‘Museums to DNA can save ‘The Galapagos is a glimpse of eternity —

Galapagos’ giant tortoises’ its animals are full of innocent wonder’
Adalgisa Caccone teaches ecology and evolutionary Paul Stewart is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who has worked in the Galapagos. Speaking to
biology at Yale University. She tells Times Evoke of the
Times Evoke, he discusses the revelations in his book ‘Galapagos: The Islands That Changed The World’:
efforts to save the iconic Galapagos giant tortoises:

I
Photos: iStock

was 18 when I first went to the At this moment, the Galapagos is a

W
Photos: iStock

e’ve been work-
ing on the
Galapagos giant
tortoise’s evolu-
tionary history and conserva-
tion for the last 20 years. Using
DNA sources and genomes, we
study how these tortoises
arrived there, how they spread
across islands and the impacts
of humans and invasive
species. Humans have hunted
these giant tortoises to the
point of making
many go extinct. To
help them survive,
we’ve been research-
ing their genetic di-
versity, using sam-
ples from living ani-
mals and museums.
Thanks to painstak-
ingly preserved
museum collections, we have
a large database to help us.
The giant tortoises of the
Galapagos are major ecosys-
tem engineers. Being herbi-
vores, they ensure the islands
are not overrun by vegetation
but they also ensure seed
dispersal and a healthy envi-
ronment. These animals were
once widespread in all
continents except Australia
and Antarctica until the Pleis-
tocene — this coincided with
the rise of the human popula-
tion which needed to eat. So,
these shy tortoises were hunt-
ed to extinction everywhere
— except in remote oceanic
islands like the Galapagos.
Earth’s largest cold-blood-
ed terrestrial vertebrate, this
tortoise can grow upto 400
pounds. In Galapagos, Charles
Darwin found these had
different shapes on different
islands, which presented
intriguing possibilities. By the
late 19th century, pirates had
hunted over 90% of Fernan-
dina Island’s tortoises — but
in 1906, only one large male
was discovered on Fernandi-
na and moved to the US,
named Chelonoidis phantas-
ticus, scientists believing only
one of his species remained.
However, in 2019, a small
female tortoise was also dis-
IN THE DEEP: The Galapagos giant tortoise (L)
cannot swim. It can, at best, float briefly. How
it reached the Galapagos Islands, almost 1,000
kms away from the coast, and then spread,
has puzzled ecologists for decades
covered on Fernandina. We
studied the genomes of
‘Fernanda’, who is about 50
PAST FORWARD
years old, and the male
specimen at the California
Academy of Sciences. We
found the two are closely re-
lated. We need to know what
happened to other members
of the species — are there
more? Can we perhaps rescue
them for breeding programs?
Some years ago, we found
genetic similarities between
giant tortoises on the Isabela,
Floreana and Pinta islands. A
huge database of museum
samples along with living
animals showed how Flore-
ana species arrived on other
islands, living on the upper-
most corners of volcano
walls. But how did they get
there? From the 18th century,
sailors and whalers roamed
the older islands, picking up
giant tortoises. These ani-
mals could survive without
food or water for months,
making this their greatest
vulnerability for they became
a perfect source of meat.
But the sailors would often
fight — English and French
warships clashed there — and
to gain speed, they would just
drop the animals into water.
Isabela has the Banks Bay, his-
torical records stating how
floating turtles from Floreana,
now extinct there, arrived
here. Their genome grew hy-
brid but some years ago, with
the support of the Galapagos
National Park, we began a
breeding program — return-
ing to the volcanos, we identi-
fied animals with Floreana
genomes, flew them to the con-
servation centre, started a
breeding program and took
these animals and their off-
spring to their Floreana home.
The Park has been wonder-
ful at managing these vulner-
able populations. Only 15 giant
tortoises were found on
Espanola Island in 1972 —
keeping them there would
mean them perishing, so the
Park began a breeding pro-
gram, releasing the offspring
of the 15 on Espanola. Now,
there are over 2,000 tortoises
there, with offspring born in
the wild as well. These extraor-
dinary creatures have been
hurt by us. Today, we can help
preserve them. The Galapagos
shows how humans can do
both harmful and wonderful
things. If we choose the latter,
these giant tortoises could sur-
vive and someday even thrive.
Galapagos in 1985, taking a lift on
a military transport plane. We
landed on Baltra Island and I saw
just bare lava there. But then, we
travelled over the Baltra Canal separat-
ing it from Santa Cruz and my senses
were beautifully awakened by huge
numbers of sea birds, turtles and sharks
in the water, land
iguanas sunning on
the dock, marine
iguanas swimming
around. These
incredible creatures
were a naturalist’s
promised land.
I realised how
innocent these animals are — until
recently, they’d never faced people as a
danger. So, they come up to you with
surprise and wonderment — you’re
looking at them, they’re looking at you.
A giant tortoise raises itself to eye-
level with you and thinks, so, what
exactly are you? I’ve never seen that
innocence anywhere else. You could go
for a swim and a sea lion will see you
as someone new to play hide and seek
with. While you feel delighted, you also
feed saddened, realising how once, all
the animals in the world must have felt
SO BRIGHT, SO SHY: The sally lightfoot
crab is vivid in its colouring, yet
famously reclusive. The crabs' ability
to escape attention has been described
by the famous writer John Steinbeck
who found these could seemingly
'disappear in a puff of blue smoke'
READERS WRITE
Dear Times Evoke,
We are so fortunate to read
TE’s much awaited weekly
articles and share our
thoughts with this prestigious
platform created by TOI. The
page on microbes (11th June)
had such remarkable facts!
—Pooja Vaid, Delhi
milestone in our planet’s history. While
I’ve filmed many beings there — and
always found the animals fearless and
natural — my favourite species is a
giant tortoise on the Alcedo volcano on
Isabela Island. I remember looking
across from one side of the rim — in
the mist of the fumoir around the vol-
canic edges, I saw a sort of glistening.
Hiking there, I found a volcanic vent,
producing heat and steam — and the
biggest of the giant tortoises arriving
early in the morning to have a kind of
sauna there. This helped them raise
their temperature — it’s 1,000 metres
up and quite cold. Some would even
sleep there amidst the mist and
LET'S PLAY! A sea lion, endangered in most parts of the world due to bycatch, is vapours, warming up their days thus.
unafraid of humans in the Galapagos Islands. However, it now faces warming seas I saw their trails etched into the vol-
cano itself, the passage of thousands
like that until they were hunted or Hawaii which was a big nesting ground of generations of these tortoises, walk-
harried down by humans. Galapagos for albatrosses. Three years ago, a mas- ing up and down to that vent, scored
feels like Eden before the fall. sive hurricane sank the entire island,
While responsible ecotourism has which was built on sand and coral
grown recently, hardly anyone can banks. Galapagos is built from volca-
visit about 98% of the Galapagos nos which push the islands up thou-
yet. The islands sands of feet. So, it
famously caused won’t be entirely
Darwin’s under- THE FOREVER ISLES lost to sea level rise.
standing of evolu- However, its ani-
tion, which changed the world, but mals confront climate challenges —
they mostly remain an isolated place Galapagos has penguins, the only ones
of geological changes that go unseen. found north of the Equator, who need
In the late 1960s, a large and beautiful cool lava tubes to nest in. As sea and
blue lake stood by the volcano on air temperatures increase, their ability A REGAL GOLD: The vegetarian land
Fernandina Island. One day, it fell 500 to raise a clutch will be threatened. Sea iguanas or Conolophus subcristatus in
metres into the magma chamber turtles are impacted too because the the Galapagos sport bright yellow to
below. It sent a shockwave throughout gender of their eggs is partly deter- soft pink shades, a contrast to their
the world — some countries even went mined by higher sand climates produc- darker marine relatives from which
on a nuclear alert due to the boom. But ing mostly one gender over another. they diverged in evolutionary terms
the lake disappeared into a chasm one Also, as sea temperatures rise, ocean about eight million years ago
day, to return some years later, as currents can change. One reason for
mysteriously as before. such thriving life in the Galapagos is deeply into the earth. Filming from the
The Galapagos animals are wonder- the cold Humboldt current which air, I saw how the volcano itself some-
ful at dealing with these changes from sweeps up from southern America — if how resembled an ancient tortoise,
nature, rather than the plastics and global sea temperatures change and bearing very old skin with lines and
parasites humans can bring. But they that cold current stops, it could be ridges. It felt like a glimpse of eternity
are facing climate change now. In 2014, disastrous, even turning the Galapagos and marvellously, David Attenborough
I filmed a BBC feature on an island off into dryer, more desert islands. was there, witnessing this with me.
Times Evoke’s articles are amazing! TE’s ‘Small Bang Theory’ was captivating! Roberto A REVIEW BY YOU
I learned how microbes can take on Kolter explained how minute microbes enable the
new roles fast. Their changes change mightiest organisms to survive. Thank you, TE! Dear readers, we are delighted
our environment and our own health. —Shivansh Deo, Class 10, Motihari by your wonderful reviews of ‘To
TE, we love your beautiful pages! Nature, With Love’! On popular
It was enriching to read how microbes generate
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over 50% oxygen we breathe! Thanks, TOI, for
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