“Today we know that evolution is a much more dynamic process than Darwin imagined.”

Having received the 10th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology, biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant explain in this interview how their more than four decades of studying the finches of the Galápagos Islands have transformed our understanding of evolution in real time. Through continuous observations and detailed analyses, the Grants reveal how natural selection acts generation after generation, shaping traits such as beak size in response to environmental changes. Their work demonstrates that evolution can be rapid, dynamic, and measurable, offering a unique model for understanding the processes that drive biodiversity. The interview highlights the importance of long-term research in unraveling the mechanisms that underpin species adaptation and resilience.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology catego

Having received the 10th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology, biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant explain in this interview how their more than four decades of studying the finches of the Galápagos Islands have transformed our understanding of evolution in real time. Through continuous observations and detailed analyses, the Grants reveal how natural selection acts generation after generation, shaping traits such as beak size in response to environmental changes. Their work demonstrates that evolution can be rapid, dynamic, and measurable, offering a unique model for understanding the processes that drive biodiversity. The interview highlights the importance of long-term research in unraveling the mechanisms that underpin species adaptation and resilience.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology category goes, in this tenth edition, to evolutionary biologists Rosemary and Peter Grant “for their profound contributions to our understanding of the mechanisms and processes by which evolution occurs in the wild,” in the words of the jury’s citation. This husband-and-wife research team was the first to successfully document how evolution plays out in real time, uncovering mechanisms of utility for developing effective strategies to conserve threatened species.