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Charles Darwin Facts

Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who changed the way humans viewed themselves and the world around them through his amazing ideas on evolution and natural selection.

Read on for interesting facts, quotes and science information about Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin was born in England on the 12th of February 1809, he died on the 19th of April 1882.

He is most famous for his work on natural selection, the idea that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors. This process involves favorable traits becoming more common in successive generations of living things while at the same time unfavorable traits become less common.

Not only did Darwin develop the idea of natural selection, he also presented compelling evidence from his detailed research which included a five year voyage on the HMS Beagle. On this voyage, Darwin visited ecologically diverse regions such as Brazil, Chile, Australia, the Falkland Islands and the Galapagos Islands.

His 1859 book ‘On the Origin of Species’, detailed much of his research on natural selection, it contained a large amount of evidence to back up his ideas and became a landmark work in the field of evolutionary biology.

Darwin’s ideas created a lot of discussion regarding the impact on various scientific, religious and philosophical viewpoints. Although most of those in educated society accepted the theory of evolution, many still challenge its existence despite the wealth of evidence supporting it.

Although in later life Darwin suffered from a range of illnesses, he continued with his research and undertook new experiments to help support his ideas while at the same time forming new ones in other fields.

Other famous work by Charles Darwin includes: ‘The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals’, ‘The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex’, ‘The Power of Movement in Plants’ and ‘The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms’.

Famous Charles Darwin quotes include: “Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relationship to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by

its offspring.” “We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole

systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.”

“I have watched how steadily the general feeling, as shown at elections, has been rising against Slavery. What a proud thing for England if she is the first European nation which utterly abolishes it!”

Charles Darwin facts for kids

Charles Darwin

Darwin, c. 1854 when he was working towards publication of On the Origin

of Species

Born Charles Robert Darwin

12 February 1809

The Mount, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England

Died 19 April 1882 (aged 73)

Down House, Downe, Kent, England

Fields Natural history, geology

Known for The Voyage of the Beagle

On the Origin of Species

Signature

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist. He was born

in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He is famous for his work on the theory of evolution. His book On the Origin of

Species (1859) did two things. First, it provided a great deal of evidence that evolution has taken place.

Second, it proposed a theory to explain how evolution works. That theory is natural selection. Evolution by

natural selection is the key to understanding biology, and the diversity of life on Earth.

Contents Voyage of the HMS Beagle

Darwin's theory

o Before Darwin

o Evolution

Related pages

Images for kids

Voyage of the HMS Beagle

The voyage of the Beagle

Plymouth, England, south to Cape Verde then southwest across the Atlantic to Bahia, Brazil, south to Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo,

the Falkland Islands, round the tip of South America then north to Valparaiso, Chile, and Callao. North west to the Galapagos

Islands before sailing west across the Pacific to New Zealand, Sydney, Hobart in Tasmania, and King George's Sound in Western

Australia. Northwest to the Keeling Islands, southwest to Mauritius and Cape Town, then northwest to Bahia and northeast back to

Plymouth

Darwin spent almost five years on board a Royal Navy exploring ship, the HMS Beagle. He was the guest

naturalist, which meant that he was responsible for making collections and notes about the animals, plants,

and the geology of the countries they visited. The ship's crew made charts of all the coastal areas, which

could be used by the navy wherever it went in the world. At the time, Britain had by far the largest navy in

the world, and an empire which was global.

As HMS Beagle surveyed the coasts of South America, Darwin theorised about geology and extinction of giant mammals.

Darwin collected everywhere the ship weighed anchor. He found huge fossils of recently extinct mammals,

experienced an earthquake in Chile, and noticed the land had been raised. He knew of raised beaches

elsewhere, high in the Andes, with fossil seashells and trees which had once grown on a sandy beach.

Obviously the earth was constantly changing, with land rising in some places, and sinking in others. He

collected birds and insects, and sent shipments back to Cambridge for experts to identify.

Darwin was the first dedicated naturalist to visit the Galapagos Islands, off the west coast of Ecuador. He

noticed that some of the birds were like mockingbirds on the mainland, but different enough to be placed in

separate species. He began to wonder how so many new species came to be on these islands.

When Darwin got back to England, he edited a series of scientific reviews of the voyage, and wrote a

personal journal which we know as The Voyage of the Beagle. It is one of the great natural history travel

diaries.

In 1843 Darwin, who already had two children with his wife Emma, bought Down House in

the village of Downe, Kent. He lived there for the rest of his life, and today the house and contents are open

to the public.

Darwin's theory Before Darwin

Before the nineteenth century, the accepted theory for the extinction of species was called Catastrophism,

which stated that species went extinct due to catastrophes that were often followed by the formation of new

species ex nihilo (out of nothing). The extinct species can then be found as fossils. The new species were

considered unchangeable. This theory was in accordance with the story of the Flood in the Bible. In the early

nineteenth century, several new theories started to compete with Catastrophism. One of the most important

ones was developed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829). He observed that every new generation inherits

the traits of its ancestors. He suggested that traits or organs become enhanced with repeated use and

weakened or removed by disuse in each individual, who will pass these improvements or losses directly to

their offspring.

Evolution

Example how natural selection can work

While on H.M.S. Beagle, and later back home in London, Darwin had come across the ideas of the Rev.

T.R. Malthus. Malthus had realised that, although humans could double their population every 25 years, it

did not happen in practice. He thought the reason was that a struggle for existence (or resources) limited

their numbers. If numbers increased, then famine, wars and diseases caused more deaths. Darwin, who knew

that all living things could, in principle, increase their numbers, began to think about why some survived,

while others did not. His answer took years to develop.

The theory of evolution says that all living things on Earth, including plants, animals and microbes, come

from a common ancestor by slowly changing throughout the generations. Darwin suggested that the way

living things changed over time is through natural selection. This is the better survival and reproduction of

those that best fit their environment. Fitting into the place where you live is called adapting. Those who fit

best into the place where they live, the best adapted, have the best chance to survive and breed. Those who

are less well-adapted tend not to survive. If they do not survive well enough to raise young, this means they

do not pass on their genes. In this way, the species gradually changes.

The first chapter of the Origin deals with domesticated animals, such as cattle and dogs. Darwin reminded

readers of the huge changes mankind had made in its domestic animals, which were once wild species. The

changes were brought about by selective breeding – choosing animals with desirable characters to breed

from. This had been done generation after generation, until our modern breeds were produced. Perhaps what

man had done deliberately, might happen in nature, where some would leave more offspring than others.

Darwin noticed that although young plants or animals are very similar to their parents, no two are exactly

the same and there is always a range of shape, size, colour, and so on. Some of these differences the plant or

animal may have got from their own ancestors, but some are new and caused by mutations. When such

differences made an organism more able to live in the wild, it would have a better chance to survive, and

would pass on its genes to its offspring, and they to their offspring. Any difference that would cause the

plant or animal to have less of a chance to live would be less likely to be passed on, and would eventually

die out altogether. In this way groups of similar plants or animals (called species) slowly change in shape

and form so that they can live more successfully and have more offspring who will survive them. So, natural

selection had similarities to selective breeding, except that it would happen by itself, over a much longer

time.

He first started thinking about this in 1838, but it took a full twenty years before his ideas became public. By

1844 he was able to write a draft of the main ideas in his notebook. Historians think that he did not talk

about his theory because he was afraid of public criticism. He knew his theory, which did not discuss

religion, raised questions about the literal truth of the Book of Genesis. Whatever the reason, he did not

publish his theory in a book until 1859. In 1858 he heard that another biologist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had

the same ideas about natural selection. Darwin and Wallace's ideas were first published in the Journal of the

Linnaean Society in London, 1858. Then, Darwin published his book the next year. The name of the book

was On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the

struggle for life. This is usually called The Origin of Species.

1859 copy of Origins of Species

Darwin wrote a number of other books, most of which are also very important.

Related pages Erasmus Darwin

Alfred Russel Wallace

Charles Lyell

Charles Darwin's books

Evolution

Images for kids

Painting of seven-year-old Charles Darwin in 1816.

While still a young man, Charles Darwin joined the scientific elite.

In mid-July 1837 Darwin started his "B" notebook on Transmutation of Species, and on page 36 wrote "I think"

above his first evolutionary tree.

Darwin chose to marry his cousin, Emma Wedgwood.

Darwin in 1842 with his eldest son, William Erasmus Darwin

Darwin's "sandwalk" at Down House was his usual "Thinking Path".

Charles Darwin, aged 46 in 1855, by then working towards publication of his theory of natural selection. He

wrote to Hooker about this portrait, "if I really have as bad an expression, as my photograph gives me, how I can

have one single friend is surprising."

During the Darwin family's 1868 holiday in her Isle of Wight cottage, Julia Margaret Cameron took portraits

showing the bushy beard Darwin grew between 1862 and 1866.

An 1871 caricature following publication of The Descent of Man was typical of many showing Darwin with

an ape body, identifying him in popular culture as the leading author of evolutionary theory.

By 1878, an increasingly famous Darwin had suffered years of illness.

Letter from Charles Darwin to John Burdon-Sanderson

Tombs of John Herschel and Charles Darwin. Westminster Abbey.

In 1881 Darwin was an eminent figure, still working on his contributions to evolutionary thought that had an

enormous effect on many fields of science. Portrait by John Collier.

Unveiling of the Darwin Statue outside the former Shrewsbury School building in 1897

In 1851 Darwin was devastated when his daughter Annie died. By then his faith in Christianity had dwindled,

and he had stopped going to church.

Caricature from 1871 Vanity Fair