Ariane

On December 27, 1831, Charles Darwin, a naturalist, left England and set sail to South America on a five year voyage as a companion to the captain, Robert Fitzroy. He was aboard the H.M.S Beagle on a survey mission to chart the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego [10]. On his voyage he read “Lyell’s Principles of Geology”, which proposed that fossils found in rocks were evidence of animals that previously lived many thousands of years ago. The central idea is that geological remains found in the past continue onto the present in a process, and are capable of being observed [13]. On September 15, 1835, he arrived in the Galapagos Islands and stayed almost a month. There, Darwin observed the plants and animals of the region and recorded them in his journal. Their characteristics differed on islands next door to one another [13, 14]. But in particular he noticed that each island had finches with different and similar characteristics. His observations in the Galapagos Islands strengthened Lyell’s principle that certain characteristics of the finches were carried on from the past and apparent in the present [12]. Upon his return to England in 1863, he was amazed by the esteem from the scientific community, and was elected secretary to the Geological Society of London [13]. Darwin put together all his notes and observations to figure out how species evolve. He came to develop a theory of evolution occurring by the process of natural selection. This theory suggests that animals or plants best suited to their environment by dominant characteristics will survive and therefore reproduce, passing their traits onto the next generation. Gradually these species will change over time. This theory led to his publishing of the //Origin of Species//, 1859, [11, 12]. This experience was marked as one of the most important events in Darwin’s life [13]. His book was both popular and controversial. The church thought his theory of evolution was contrary to the teachings of the bible. It also generated much discussion of scientific, philosophical, and religious grounds. Today, scientists embrace Darwin’s theory of evolution, and use it to introduce evolutionary biology [11]. Slowly but surely the book became more well known and in September, 1861, Darwin’s //Origin of Species// was in the process of getting translated into French, Dutch, and German. A scholar friend of Darwin’s gave a speech on evolution in Edinburgh, Scotland. He received great enthusiasm from the audience, and when news reached Darwin he was overjoyed. In January, 1863, a lizard-bird fossil was discovered in Solenhofen, Germany. Richard Owen bought it for the British Museum and called the fossil "Archaeopteryx.” At first the fossil appeared to look like a bird, but with further examination it carried many characteristics that only a lizard had: teeth, and a bony tail. This helped to support Darwin’s theory of evolution [14]. 10) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/conquer/sea/photo5.html 11) http://who2.com/ask/charlesdarwin.html 12) http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml 13) http://www.online-literature.com/darwin/ 14) http://www.aboutdarwin.com/timeline/time_07.html#0020
 * //The Origin of Species//, 1859 by: Charles Darwin **