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Early Life 1809-1836
Charles Darwin was born February 12, 1809. In 1822 as a kid, Charles liked collecting and studying Beetles. He liked studying nature, he was a natural at it. From 1831 to 1836 Charles Darwin was the guest naturalist on the HMS Beagle. His job was to collect notes on the animals and plants they encountered. He collected everywhere the ship landed. The ship traveled around South America and the Galapagos Islands. -
Natural Selection 1836-1858
Darwin reasoned that beings competed over limited resources in the environment. Only the most fit for a given region survive. The way things change over time is natural selection. If something has a trait that helps them survive they are more likely to live longer to reproduce and pass on that gene. The best adapted are the best to survive. These small mutations creating traits that help survival cause species to change over time. The ones with traits that do not help survival die out. -
Evidence of Evolution 1836-1858
Darwin summarized years of work collecting and categorizing animal specimens. He noticed some trends. He surmised that species change over time. This was a bold idea considering the standard view at the time was that God created all species and they were perfect and did not change. Darwin’s idea of evolution took years to develop. He deducted that species developed from single common ancestor. His bold theory was that all living things come from a common ancestor. -
On the Origin of Species 1859
In 1859 Charles Darwin finally publishes his masterpiece “On the Origin of Species”. The book stirred great interest and had mixed reviews. He does not mention God in the book, but his bold ideas go against the standard Religious thoughts of the time. His work is so well documented that it was hard to dispute. In his many years of research, he collected huge amounts of data, that were brought forth and organized into the first tree of life diagram.
