Editing Adaptive radiation (section)

=== Adaptive radiation in Hawaii ===
[[File:Iiwi_on_native_mint_-_Hakalau_Forest_NWR.jpg|thumb|An ʻiʻiwi (''Drepanis coccinea''). Note the long, curved beak for sipping nectar from tubular flowers.]][[Hawaii]] has served as the site of a number of adaptive radiation events, owing to its isolation, recent origin, and large land area. The three most famous examples of these radiations are presented below, though insects like the Hawaiian [[Drosophila|drosophilid]] flies and ''[[Hyposmocoma]]'' moths have also undergone adaptive radiation.<ref name="Olsen">{{Cite book|title=Evolution in Hawaii: A Supplement to Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science|last=Olsen|first=Steve|publisher=The National Academies Press|year=2004|isbn=0-309-52657-4|location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref><ref name="Rubinoff" />

====Hawaiian honeycreepers====
The [[Hawaiian honeycreeper]]s form a large, highly morphologically diverse species group of birds that began radiating in the early days of the Hawaiian archipelago. While today only 17 species are known to persist in Hawaii (3 more may or may not be extinct), there were more than 50 species prior to Polynesian colonization of the archipelago (between 18 and 21 species have gone extinct since the discovery of the islands by westerners). The Hawaiian honeycreepers are known for their beaks, which are specialized to satisfy a wide range of dietary needs: for example, the beak of the ʻakiapōlāʻau (''[[ʻAkiapolaʻau|Hemignathus wilsoni]]'') is characterized by a short, sharp lower mandible for scraping bark off of trees, and the much longer, curved upper mandible is used to probe the wood underneath for insects.<ref name="Weiner" /> Meanwhile, the ʻiʻiwi (''[[ʻIʻiwi|Drepanis coccinea]]'') has a very long curved beak for reaching nectar deep in ''[[Lobelia]]'' flowers.<ref name="Olsen" /> An entire clade of Hawaiian honeycreepers, the tribe [[Psittirostrini]], is composed of thick-billed, mostly seed-eating birds, like the Laysan finch (''[[Laysan finch|Telespiza cantans]]'').<ref name="Olsen" /> In at least some cases, similar morphologies and behaviors appear to have evolved convergently among the Hawaiian honeycreepers; for example, the short, pointed beaks of ''[[Loxops]]'' and ''[[ʻAkikiki|Oreomystis]]'' evolved separately despite once forming the justification for lumping the two genera together.<ref name="Reding" /> The Hawaiian honeycreepers are believed to have descended from a single common ancestor some 15 to 20 million years ago, though estimates range as low as 3.5 million years.<ref name="Baldwin">{{cite journal|last1=Baldwin|first1=Bruce G.|last2=Sanderson|first2=Michael J.|year=1998|title=Age and rate of diversification of the Hawaiian silversword alliance (Compositae)|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=95|issue=16|pages=9402–9406|bibcode=1998PNAS...95.9402B|doi=10.1073/pnas.95.16.9402|pmid=9689092|pmc=21350|doi-access=free}}</ref>

====Hawaiian silverswords====
[[File:Young_silverswords,_Haleakala.jpg|thumb|A mixture of blooming and non-blooming Haleakalā silverswords (''Argyroxiphium sandwicense macrocephalum'').]]

Adaptive radiation is not a strictly vertebrate phenomenon, and examples are also known from among plants. The most famous example of adaptive radiation in plants is quite possibly the Hawaiian [[Argyroxiphium|silverswords]], named for alpine desert-dwelling ''[[Argyroxiphium]]'' species with long, silvery leaves that live for up to 20 years before growing a single flowering stalk and then dying.<ref name="Olsen" /> The Hawaiian [[silversword alliance]] consists of twenty-eight species of Hawaiian plants which, aside from the namesake silverswords, includes trees, shrubs, vines, cushion plants, and more.<ref name="Baldwin" /> The silversword alliance is believed to have originated in Hawaii no more than 6 million years ago, making this one of Hawaii's youngest adaptive radiation events.<ref name="Baldwin" /> This means that the silverswords evolved on Hawaii's modern high islands, and descended from a single common ancestor that arrived on [[Kauai]] from western North America.<ref name="Baldwin" /> The closest modern relatives of the silverswords today are California tarweeds of the family [[Asteraceae]].<ref name="Baldwin" />

==== Hawaiian lobelioids ====
Hawaii is also the site of a separate major floral adaptive radiation event: the [[Hawaiian lobelioids]]. The Hawaiian lobelioids are significantly more speciose than the silverswords, perhaps because they have been present in Hawaii for so much longer: they descended from a single common ancestor who arrived in the archipelago up to 15 million years ago.<ref name="Baldwin" /> Today the Hawaiian lobelioids form a clade of over 125 species, including succulents, trees, shrubs, epiphytes, etc.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Givnish|first1=Thomas J|last2=Millam|first2=Kendra C|last3=Mast|first3=Austin R|last4=Paterson|first4=Thomas B|last5=Theim|first5=Terra J|last6=Hipp|first6=Andrew L|last7=Henss|first7=Jillian M|last8=Smith|first8=James F|last9=Wood|first9=Kenneth R|last10=Sytsma|first10=Kenneth J|date=2008-10-14|title=Origin, adaptive radiation and diversification of the Hawaiian lobeliads (Asterales: Campanulaceae)|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|volume=276|issue=1656|pages=407–416|doi=10.1098/rspb.2008.1204|pmid=18854299|issn=0962-8452|pmc=2664350}}</ref> Many species have been lost to extinction and many of the surviving species endangered.