Galápagos Islands

The Galápagos Islands are an Ecuadorian volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, renowned for endemic wildlife and their influence on Charles Darwin’s thinking about evolution.

Galápagos tortoise: A giant tortoise native to the Galápagos, with populations adapted to different islands and habitats. Its island-specific forms became a hallmark example of Galápagos diversity.
Galápagos hotspot: A mantle plume beneath the Nazca Plate that feeds the volcanoes forming the Galápagos Islands. Its volcanism builds the archipelago as the plate moves over it.
Charles Darwin: An English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection transformed biology. His observations in the Galápagos contributed to the questions that shaped his theory.
Galápagos National Park: A protected area established in 1959 that covers most of the Galápagos land area. It regulates access and protects terrestrial habitats across the inhabited archipelago.
Marine iguana: A Galápagos lizard that forages in the sea and feeds chiefly on marine algae. It is the only living iguana adapted to marine foraging.
Nazca Plate: An oceanic tectonic plate beneath the eastern Pacific Ocean, moving eastward toward South America. Its motion carries older islands away from the hotspot and shapes the island chain’s age pattern.
HMS Beagle: A British survey ship that carried Charles Darwin on a voyage around the world from 1831 to 1836. Darwin visited the Galápagos during the Beagle’s 1835 survey of the islands.
Galápagos Marine Reserve: A large protected ocean area surrounding the Galápagos Islands, established in 1998. It extends conservation beyond the islands to marine ecosystems and fisheries.
Darwin's finches: A group of Galápagos songbird species with varied beaks and diets, central to studies of adaptive radiation. Their differences illustrate how related island populations can specialize in distinct niches.
Humboldt Current: A cold ocean current flowing north along the western coast of South America. It brings cool, nutrient-rich water that supports marine life around the islands.

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