Charles Darwin 1809-1882

By JessicaSue

  • Coral Reef Theory

    After Darwin graduated from the University of Cambridge he set out to sea on a British Warship that was charting South American coastline. He had read Charles Lyell's theory about coral circles that grew around islands. Sometimes there was no island present. Lyell had suggested the coral were the tops of old volcanoes. Darwin disagreed and theorized that the islands had been sinking, and the coral grew to maintain level with the shallow waters, in which it was capable of growing.

  • Barnacle Classifications

    After sailing around the South America's aboard the British Warship, and writing books on geology from his experience. Darwin spent the next eight years classifying barnacles. He published many books on barnacles and fossils, making a large contribution to that field of study during that time period.

  • Published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection

    Published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
    Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. This book was about how plants and animals evolve overtime, disputing the creationist idea, a popular teaching of Christianity. Many of his ideas stemmed from his time studying the birds and tortoises on the Galapagos Islands during his time aboard the British Warship. Darwin was not the first to come up with this idea, however his ideas made a huge impression on the scientific and philosophical worlds.

  • published The Descent of Man

    Darwin did not fully address the evolution of man in his previous works, but in 1871 he did so with his The Descent of Man. Along with natural selection, he wrote about sexual selection, the way in which men and women choose mates. He believed humans were animals as well, and subject to evolution, evolving from ancient monkey-like animals. He did not mean that humans evolved from current day chimps or apes, but rather we all stemmed from some common ancestor.

  • Resources

    Resources: Ruse, Michael, and Michael Ruse. Charles Darwin, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=428154.