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Hawaii

mapofhawaii.JPG (42242 bytes)

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Hawaii is a chain of volcanic islands or an archipelago situated in the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii has some of the most beautiful flowers on earth. Many birds are endemic to the islands but most of the mammals were introduced by settlers. Hawaii is a great example of biodiversity because you see the differences in species as you travel from one side of an island to the other or one bioregion to another. This is because of the extreme differences in climate. Many of the birds have become extinct because they were hunted for their beautiful feathers. See the plants and animals that we found most interesting.   

The Hawaiian Islands are important in the study of biodiversity and evolution because their native animals and plants have evolved much longer in isolation and have a much greater variety of habitats or ecosystem to live in.

  Adaptive radiation in Hawaiian honeycreepers

Adaptive radiation is when a single species splits into a number of other species over time and adapt to different habitats by developing physical differences. For example, the beaks of the  sub-species of the Hawaiian honeycreeper are different according to the kinds of flowers they eat.

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