| Citation | Rosemary Grant's long-term research on Darwin's finches demonstrated that natural selection occurs frequently in nature and that evolution is extremely rapid as a result. She has shown how new species originate by natural selection on morphological traits and random drift in learned mating signals (song). She showed how infrequent hybridization between species dramatically influences the genetic structure of populations, and how adaptation to environments drives the divergence of species. Her contributions have helped make the Darwin's finch project the most significant field study of evolution of all time, and have changed the course of research in evolutionary biology. |