Charles darwin

Charles Darwin 12 February 1809 -- 19 April 1882

By Shanya R.

  • 27 December 1831 Charles Darwin Begins Five Year Voyage

    27 December 1831 Charles Darwin Begins Five Year Voyage
    Charles Darwin is invited to join the ship when LT Robert Fitzroy, thought it may be a good idea to bring along a scientist. The plan is to explore South America, The South Pacific, and circumnavigate the globe. During his time along the voyage, he records his findings of different species and sees the result of slavery in South America. He eventually reaches the Galapagos islands and finds many of the large tortoises and birds that are native only to that island.

  • The Emergence of Darwin's theory

    The Emergence of Darwin's theory
    Charles Darwin works on his first paper that details his findings as he spent circumnavigating the globe. He uses his "red notebook" for which he recorded much his journey, as the bases for most of his writing. Darwin is elected to join The Council of Society for his outstanding work. It is during this time he is given concrete evidence that the birds he retuned are actually two separate species. He takes these findings and begins to form the basis for Natural Selection.

  • Development of the theory of natural selection

    Development of the theory of natural selection
    During this time he reads Thomas Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population. This helps him form ideas about how a species could change depending on different factors such as environment or simply chance. He originally came up with the term "mutation" but knew he would come up with a better term to describe the differences of other species. "Thanks for your hints about terms of “mutation” I had had some suspicions, that it was not quite correct" (Darwin Correspondence Database).

  • Publication of Origins of Species and "Evolution"

    Publication of Origins of Species and "Evolution"
    Charles Darwin completes work on the Origin of Species almost 20 years later from which he describes the theory of Evolution. Charles Darwin isn't the first to use the term scientifically, but often gets credit for its use, even though he didn't use the term until the last line of the book. "a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved" (Origins of Species, Charles Darwin).