Charles Darwin :: Biography Biographies

Charles Robert Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundation of upstartevolutionary theory with his views on life development by dint of pictorial selection.He was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Eng impart, on February 12, 1809.After graduating from the elite schooltime at Shrewsbury in 1825, Darwinattended the University of Edinburgh where he canvass medicine. In 1827 hedropped out and entered the University of Cambridge in preparation for becominga clergyman of the church building of England. While there, Darwin met two importantpeople in his life go game Sedgwick, a geologist, and John Stevens Henslow, a naturalist. After graduating from Cambridge in 1831, the 22-year-old Darwin wastaken alongside the English survey ship HMS Beagle, mainly because of Henslowsrecommendation, as an unpaid naturalist on an expedition around the world.When the voyage began, Darwin didnt believe that species change throughtime, unless he did believe in two prevailing ideas of the time. The prototypical theory wasthat the footing was 6,000 years old and had remained unchanged except for the cause of floods and other catastropes. The second was that organisms weredesigned especially for certain habitats and appeared on the earth in their presentform.After reading the works of a historied geologist, Darwin began to change hisideas. He saw evidence that the earth was much ripened than 6,000 years. In federationAmerica, he was witness to an earthquake that lifted the land several feet. Herealized that mountains could be built by the bring through of an earthquake overmillions of years. He found fossils of marine mammals high up on mountains,and realized that rocks must have been lifted from the ocean.Darwin also studied imbeds and animals. On the Galapagos Islands, hefound animals that resembled animals on the South American continent, but notexactly the same. He understood that they must have pick out to the islands fromthe mainland, and then adapted into new species. He also observed the plant andanimal life of South America, oceanic islands, and the Far East. He noteworthy manyexamples that proved that animals in similar environments didnt always look thesame. For example, the emus of Australia and the rheas of South America aretwo very distinct species, but they pop off in the same basic kind of habitat. Darwinthought about this, and asked himself the question, if animals were make for aspecific habitat, why would different species be found in habitats that are sosimilar?After leaving the HMS Beagle and returning to England in 1836, Darwinbegan recording his ideas about changeability of species in his Notebooks on the