Charles Darwin – Father of evolution – Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020

Charles Robert Darwin, alive from February 12, 1809 to April 19, 1882, was a geologist,
naturalist and an outstanding biologist. Most people know him as the man who invented the
theory of natural selection, and who also made heavy contributions to the theory of
evolution. He was a fortunate man born into a fortunate family. His father Robert Darwin,
was best known as the father of the naturalist; so, biology, naturalistic thought and
science was nothing new to him.

Evolution:

Darwin brought a lot of awareness to the theories of evolution. Though, in his time, no one was ready to accept that species evolved over time. Likewise, his colleagues and scientist before him like Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, received a lot of backlash and controversy over their ideas about evolution. But his almost five-year Voyage on the HMS Beagle, where he traveled to islands like the Galapagos, provided compelling evidence of evolution by natural selection. He studied the adaptation of Galapagos finches, which solidified his theory of Evolution by natural selection. Darwin’s book, The Origin of Species, at last opened the eyes of the public and finally allowed them to accept his theories and contributions.

4 postulates:

Darwin published Four Main Ideas on Evolution, known as Darwin’s 4 postulates. Those postulates being, Individuals within species are variable. Some of these variations are passed on to offspring. In every generation, more offspring are produced than can survive. And finally, the survival and reproduction of individuals are not random; individuals who survive and reproduce have the most favorable variation, and they are naturally selected.