Perhaps no other place has had a greater impact
on the way we understand life. Although made famous by Charles
Darwin, the Galapagos Islands, even today, offer an extraordinary
array of flora and fauna. The following offerings contain a myriad
of facts and trivia about these famed islands and their surrounding
waters.
The Galapagos Islands take their name
from the saddleback tortoises that are found there. These
tortoises are among the world's largest.
These volcanic islands are an archipelago
located in the Pacific Ocean, roughly six hundred miles from western
Ecuador. There are thirteen main islands in the chain and more than
a hundred smaller islands and islets.
The chain's oldest island is thought
to have been formed approximately ten million years ago.
The islands constitute an Ecuadorian
province and are part of that country's national park system. Ecuador
strictly regulates tourism in the area.
More than sixty volcanic eruptions
have been documented over the last two hundred years in the
Galapagos region.
During the nineteenth century, whaling
ships were a common sight in Galapagos waters. Sperm whales
once swam in large pods around the islands.
Today, orcas can be seen hunting
sperm whales in Galapagos waters. Orcas also feed on Galapagos sea
lions, sharks, and rays.
Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick,
was so fascinated with the islands that he wrote a series of essays
about them in his work The Encantadas.
Charles Darwin was twenty-six when
he first saw the Galapagos Islands. His observations about life
on the islands eventually led to his famed theory of evolution.
His On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published
in 1859.
Darwin Island, one of the main
islands in the archipelago, is named for the naturalist.
There are thirteen species of Darwin's
finches endemic to the islands. As noted by the great naturalist,
these birds are famous for their beaks.
The islands' marine iguanas
are only found in the Galapagos region. These are the only marine-going
lizards found anywhere in the world.
The notorious scolopendra centipede
lives on the islands and frequently dines on lava lizards and even
young rats. These creatures grow to about thirty centimeters.
The famous Galapagos penguin is the
only type of penguin to live at the equator. An endangered species,
there are less than 1500 examples according to scientific studies.
Poisonous manzanillo apple trees
are native to the islands. Both their fruit and sap are toxic.
The islands and their waters are a
World Heritage Site. Conservation is an ongoing project for
the region.- J. A. Young
