By Edward Larson Even at a time of shockingly bad news from around the world, word of a potentially major oil spill in Galapagos waters commands our attention. It is as if a bomb destroyed the Louvre or all the Amazon rainforest was lost in day. Our reaction is a tribute to the profound place of the Galapagos Islands and their unique animals in our scientific world-view and cultural understanding. It changed how scientifically informed people view nature, life and humankind.
Evolution is more apparent in places such as the Galapagos because the environment is stripped bare.
Few plants and animals could reach these remote, volcanic islands that rose from the sea within the past 10 million years, and fewer still could survive in its harsh environment. Those that did adapted to local conditions and diversified to fill various niches not open to them on the South American mainland. The central role played by the Galapagos Islands in Darwin's discovery of evolution transformed the archipelago into a sacred site for science and a place of immense interest to biologists and eco-tourists alike. The workings of evolution are still more apparent on the Galapagos than almost any other place on earth. Hundreds of scientists from around the world still visit the islands every year to study the workings of evolution.