The Theory Of Evolution

 Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

1809-1882

You all know the explorer that made the that proved the theory of evolution, the biologist who sailed aboard the HMS Beagle ! Let’s find out more about him !

Early Life

Darwin was born as the fifth child of six into a wealthy family. He did not like school, but loved learning about the natural world. His dad was a doctor and his mother a teacher. His dad made him study medicine, Charles did not like learning about medicine so he switched to natural history at the university at Cambridge.

HMS Beagle

HMS Beagle was a Cherokee class brig sloop ( a kind of warship ) of the Royal Navy. She went on the voyage to South America with Darwin as her biologist. Her voyage left from Portsmouth, and sailed down to Tierra Del Fuego before reaching the Galapagos Archipelago. The Brig Sloop had ventured into many ports in South America as well !

Discoveries

Darwin discovered that, on each of the islands of the Galapagos, the finches had different shapes of beaks as each island had a different food source. Some had berries, some had bugs. So the birds adapted, and over time grew different kinds of beaks. This is what led to him developing the theory of evolution. He also first discovered the Galapagos giant tortoise on the archipelago.  He took samples of many plants, and pressed them not his notebook. Another not so great thing he did was discover that Galapagos giant tortoises tasted good !

Galápagos Islands

The Galapagos islands are part of Ecuador. They are a volcanic archipelago with all kinds of native wildlife including the galapagos tortoise, Humboldt penguins, bottlenose dolphins and marine iguanas that are the only lizard species that can naturally swim. I would like to Visit !

Evolution

Evolution is the theory that all species came from a common descendant, and adapted to suit their needs. For example, if  orange foxes lived in the arctic, their prey would escape, as the orange coat did not exactly blend into snow, so arctic foxes adapted to blend in with the snow. 

When he published his works, he was denounced by many, and London was predominantly Christian, but his works, and theory went against the teachings of Christ. He was sent death threats and was called names. Sir Charles was very, very very brave to publish his work at the time period. Now, many scientists agree that his theory is right !

Despite this, he won awards such as the Wollaston Medal and Royal Medal, which are very high honours. A city in Australia, was also named after the famous Biologist !

I think you may know that city, Darwin.

Thank you for reading this article