The Galápagos Islands are the Ecuadorian Pacific archipelago famous for Darwin's finches and recognized as a World Heritage Site.
The islands lie about 900 kilometers west of mainland Ecuador and were formed by volcanic activity. Their isolation produced an extraordinary collection of endemic species, including marine iguanas, giant tortoises, flightless cormorants, blue-footed boobies, and the Galápagos penguin—the only penguin naturally found north of the equator.
Charles Darwin visited the archipelago aboard HMS Beagle in 1835. Differences among island populations, especially the group of birds now popularly called Darwin's finches, helped shape his thinking about adaptation and natural selection. The finches are not all one identical species; they are a group of closely related tanagers with different beaks and feeding habits.
Ecuador created Galápagos National Park in 1959, protecting most of the islands' land area. UNESCO inscribed the Galápagos Islands as a World Heritage Site in 1978 and later included the surrounding marine reserve. The archipelago is sometimes confused with Cocos Island or Easter Island, but those are separate Pacific territories with different histories and ecosystems.