Charles Darwin Research Paper

Charles Darwin Theory of Evolution

Charles Robert Darwin was a biologist and a scientist. Darwin was best known for his work as a naturalist, developing a theory of evolution to explain biological changes. Darwin was born in England in 1809 and was the second youngest of six children. He came from a long line of scientist. His father was a medical doctor and his grandpa was a renowned botanist (Early Theories of Evolution: Darwin and Natural Selection). In October 1825, at age 16, Darwin enrolled at Edinburgh University along with his brother. A couple years later, Darwin became a student at Christ's College in Cambridge. Darwin's father hoped he would become a medical doctor and follow his footsteps, but Darwin was more interested in studying

The first person he met was Adam Sedgwick, who was a geologist, and then John Stevens Henslow, who was a naturalist. Once Darwin graduated Cambridge in 1831 at the age of 22, he was a passenger on an English survey ship named HMS Beagle, which the ship's main purpose was to go on a five year long expedition across the world. Darwin acted as an unpaid naturalist and a companion for the captain, Robert Fitzroy (Early Theories of Evolution: Darwin and Natural Selection). At the beginning of the voyage, Darwin did not believe that species changed over a period of time. At that time, he only believed in two prevailing ideas. The first theory he thought was that the earth was 6,000 years old and was kept unchanged except for the normal effects of floods, earthquakes, and other catastrophes. His second theory was that organisms were designed to live in certain habitats and appeared on earth in their present form (Charles Darwin: Evolution by Natural

Sexual selection is the selection of mates based on attractiveness, like the coloration of a bird. Sexual selection is the process by which certain organisms produce more offspring by mating more frequently than other organisms of the same sex and thereby ensure the survival of more of their genetic traits (Darwin). It is a form of natural selection but instead of competing for food in the environment, they compete for mates. The theory of sexual selection was first proposed by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species. For example, the development of size difference between males and females in mammals and birds, in which the greater strength of larger males allows them to have greater occurrence mating, is seen as a consequence of sexual selection. The development of secondary sex characteristics, such as the color of feathers in birds, which attract the opposite sex as signs of fitness, but are not directly involved in reproduction, is also attributed to sexual