[IDNeon]

The Galapagos are very remote islands.

How does something as sensitive as a cactus, or iguana get to these islands? How about for the 400,000 islands of the Pacific?

Each island has to be colonized through great suffering because surely these animals and plants don't have boats.

What are the odds each of these islands would be populated in a timely manner and by so many similar animals such as wild bore?

I doubt they road to the islands by storms and floatsam and jetsam.

Does anyone have better ideas?

Some other problems are the mating pairs needed.

It is said too few colony founders and the gene pool doesn't survive. But even if we say a single mating pair is sufficient...

Will that mating pair come together on the same piece of floating garbage?

Or will they arrive separately by coach?

In all seriousness, will a male and a female wild boar wash up on the same island during their fertile life span?

What is that fertile life span?

If it is 5 years...are a male and female boar washing up on 400,000 islands every 5 years today?

Are rats?

Are other rodents?

Iguanas?

Etc?

If mice live 2 years how many mice are washing up on islands every year to populate the islands?

I don't think evolutionists actually think....they just believe religiously and never really try to work out the implications of their beliefs even rationally.

[Brother of Karl]

The oldest island in the Galapagus islands is estimated by geologists to be 4.2 +/- 1.8 million years old. That's an incredibly long time. It's surely a very rare occurrence for an iguana to end up travelling 500 miles on a piece of driftwood during a storm, but it's not impossible. You only need two eggs to float there during a storm on a piece of debris, or a pregnant female, for an iguana population to start to form. Over the course of a few million years, it can diverge into separate species on the different islands. Most of the animals on the galapagus are either closely related to migratory birds, or other water animals like penguins, turtles, seals, etc. Even the iguana is special in that it can swim and spends most of its life in the water. It seems likely that a similar semi-aquatic iguana survived the sea voyage a few million years ago, and then the population in South America became extinct sometime since.

Try comparing the Galapagus island chain to the Hawaiian Island chain. They are both volcanic islands that are estimated by geologists to be roughly similar in age. However, Hawaii is the most isolated island chain in the world, roughly 4 times further from the nearest continental coast. As a result, it has NO endemic land vertebrates. All it has are a small selection of plants, and a few birds and insects. Also, based on the age of the island chain, a new species only showed up every 50,000 years or so until human settlers brought all the new animals and plants that grow there today.

Also, there are no endemic boars/pigs on the Galapagus islands, or any other isolated island in the Pacific. All large mammals on these Islands were brought there within the last couple thousand years by Polynesians and other human travelers.

[Duncle]

With respect to the Galapagos, ocean currents are also an important factor. The Galapagos lie at the intersection of 5 ocean currents: the Humboldt, South Equatorial, Panama, Peru Oceanic and Peru Coastal. The predominance of cold currents (the Humboldt in particular) in combination with its position on the Equator, is what gives the Galapagos its unique climate.

Obviously, if somewhere is at a major intersection of currents, it's much more likely that flora and fauna will randomly wash up on the shore. Hawaii, by contrast, is not in the path of any major ocean currents.

[ingliz]

How did cactus get to Galapagos?

Bird shit - Cactus seeds are scattered by birds.