Charles Robert Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 in the town of Shrewsbury, England, UK and he was the fifth child of six. At the age of nine, Charles went to Shrewsbury school and followed a traditional classical curriculum revolving around Greek and Latin. He enjoyed hunting and going for long walks, observing and collecting things from the natural world and very enthusiastic about science.
At the age of 16, Darwin planned to study medicine at Edinburgh University. However, he changed career paths when he realized that he couldn’t stomach the slight if blood and went on to study Divinity at Cambridge University. Darwin preferred to spend time examining natural science and beetle collecting. After graduation with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Darwin was offered a place on the HMS Beagle to act as a natural scientist on a voyage to the coast of South Africa with his botany professor John Stevens Henslow.
On his journey, Darwin made numerous notes about specimens, including birds, plants and fossils. He noticed the Finch was different on each individual island and somehow adapted to the various aspects to the particular island. After finishing five-years of his journey, Darwin worked on the dilemma of how species evolve and can end up being different on a different island. After extensive research in 1859, Darwin published ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Darwin’s theory consisted of two main points; 1) diverse groups of animals evolve from one or few common ancestors; 2) the mechanism by which this evolution takes place is natural selection. Darwin’s theory of evolution and the process of natural selection later became known simply as “Darwinism.” His work was highly appreciated after his death and in the next century, DNA studies provided scientific evidence for Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 