Charles Darwin Research Paper

Charles Darwin was an English naturalist whose idea of evolution by natural selection became the foundation for modern evolutionary studies. Prior to his work, evolutionary thought was not the dominating theory in the public’s mind. Most theories were closely related to religion. Although he was raised in an orthodox Christian home where theology was the man belief, he claims that he was “born a naturalist”; he loved nature, collecting fish, hunting, and reading books about nature, like Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne. Darwin came from a family of physicians who pushed he to peruse the same stable career path. Since there was not much variation in scientific institutes to acquire an education from at the time, Darwin did end up

from Cambridge where he formed a very important relationship with Reverend John Stevens Henslow, a botany professor. While Reverend Henslow was still extremely religious and orthodox, he was also a passionate naturalist, teaching Charles information about botany, entomology, chemistry, mineralogy, and geology. Like I mentioned previously, Darwin learned most of his education from observing and reading books such as Natural History of Selborne, Natural Theology, and Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy. At 22 years old, he was a part of the Beagle expedition for 5 years where he wrote the majority of his scientific journals. Even though he joined the trip as a naturalist, his geology background helped him with his observations. Although he stated that he felt that he was born a naturalist, there is a myth that he became a naturalist through his experiences and observations on the Beagle expedition. During his time of the Beagle, Darwin’s finding spread fast and he became very popular among the people in England. Although it was very evident that Darwin was an exceptional naturalist, his family was still disappointed. Once he returned from the Beagle in October 1836 he moved from Cambridge to London to spread his new findings where he later married his cousin Emma Wedgwood in January 1839. His health began to decline in his early thirties, so to hopeful regain his strength and improve his health he moved away from

Pre-Darwinian explanations for the origin of diversity did not involve evolution, but were often accredited to the supernatural or spontaneous generation. Darwin’s new way of approaching evolution was not influenced by Lamarck or any predecessor mainly because they were concerned with vertical evolution, while Darwin focused more on horizontal evolution. Vertical evolution involves the transition of acquired genetic material from their parents or ancestors, while in horizontal evolution organisms acquire these traits from other organisms around