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Birth
Charles Darwin was born February 12, 1809 to Susanna and Robert Darwin, in the small merchant town of Skrewsbury, England. -
Higher Education
Darwin became a medical student at the University of Edinburgh, after two years he quit the program. He continued his education and decided to study theology at Cambridge, where he found his passion for natural history. -
Darwin's first announcement
At Edinburgh, he was mentored by Robert Grant and attended meetings of the Wernerian Natural History Society. He announced his discovery that the black bodies inside oyster shells were the eggs of the skate leech Pontobdella. Days later, Darwin made his public début, explaining his findings on swimming Flustra larvae and Pontobdella eggs. -
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The H.M.S Beagle Voyage
As a naturalist on the Beagle, Charles collected specimen, make observations, and create more theories. -
"The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs" Was Published
The data he collected on the voyage yielded groundbreaking scientific discoveries. Fossils he shared lead to advances in the understanding in the formation of the Earth’s surface. The observations he made about plants and animals led him to question the evolution of species over time, and led to his most famous work natural selection -
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The Development of His Theory of Natural Selection
He spent several more years quietly continuing to mature his theory. Darwin's conclusion can best be summarized by the commonly used phrase "Survival of the Fittest". Members of a species that posses traits that make them more likely to survive in their environment reproduce and their offspring inherit those traits. Through that process, those traits become widespread throughout the species and can lead to the development of a new species. -
The Death of a Revolutionary
At the age of 73 1882, Charles Darwin passed away. He is buried in Westminster Abbey in London, England.
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"On the Origin of Species"
The controversial nature of his work did not stop the growing popularity. The book conveyed species change over enormous amounts of time, which suggested that the planet was much older than what was believed at the point in time.