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The Plinian Society.
Darwin joined this society in 1826 and that is when his journey to his theory of evolution began. "The Plinian Society was a student natural history society in the University of Edinburgh, founded by Professor Robert Jameson in 1823”. When Darwin joined, he met Robert Grant who was, similar to Darwin, uninterested in medical practice and wanted to study the science of life. -
The HMS Beagle Voyage
In 1835, During his voyage on the HMS Beagle,he got insights into different ecosystems and species diversity. While visiting the Galapagos Islands, he observes significant differences of the diverse species across the different islands that he visits on his voyage. These observations are the key component in him developing his theory of evolution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOk_0mUT_JU -
Natural Selection
Darwin questioned the similarities and differences among similar species and questioned the origin. This is the key insight Darwin had that formulates his theory of natural selection. In 1838, Darwin starts to formulate the concept of natural selection and defined it as the mechanism that drives evolution. Natural selection is when certain traits enable a certain group of a species to adapt to their environment to survive & reproduce. -
"On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection"
In 1859, Darwin published his book introducing his scientific theory called “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”. His book shows and explains the theory of natural selection with extensive evidence obtained from his voyage and research in the following years. It was groundbreaking in that he presented evidence that all life came from a “common descent, where one species is the ancestor of two or more species.”