Ecologists have studied the Galapagos islands for a long time because of the diversity of the populations they possess. It is thought that small colonies of finches emerged on each of these small islands, each small population carrying only certain alleles of the parent population. Over time, the emerging populations varied greatly from one another, leading to the development of new species. Which mechanism of speciation best describes this scenario?

Options for the question have not been provided. They are as follows:

migration

founder effect

temporal isolation

behavioral isolation

Answer:

founder effect

Explanation:

In the given scenario a large population of finches got divided into many smaller populations. Each of these smaller populations inhabited a particular island and adapted according to the conditions of that island. Eventually, they evolved very differently from each other and formed new species. This is a classic case of founder effect where a small group of individuals breaks off from the bigger population and starts a new population in some other area. Since a limited number of individuals start the new population, some alleles can be absent in it which were found in the original population.