Charles Darwin's Theory Of Natural Selection

Charles Darwin was born on the 12th of February 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. He was the fifth child born in his family of six. He came from a long line of scientists; His father was a society doctor and financier, while his grandfather was a renowned botanist. Unfortunately, Charles mother died when he was 8 years old, but that did not stop him from loving life and exploring nature. Charles father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a doctor, offering him an apprenticeship in 1825. Charles helped his father treat the poor, and then left to University with his brother. At age 16, Charles enrolled at Edinburg University, along side his brother Erasmus. Unfortunately Charles found the lectures dull and surgery distressing.

Up until this point in time, most naturalist believed that species were created over the course of natural history or that they came into being at the start of the world. In both of these scenarios it was believed that the species remained generally the same throughout time. On the voyage however, Darwin noticed that there were similarities among species all over the globe. There were even variations based on specific locations. These findings led him to believe that the species had evolved over time from a common ancestor. All of this led up to his theory of “Natural Selection”. The idea was that species had two options when their environment began to change, either they could adapt and evolve to continue to thrive, or they would fail to evolve and their offspring would die, resulting in no reproduction of that species, only the adapted one. After formulating this theory in his head, he would correspond briefly with Alfred Wallace. Wallace was exploring wildlife in South America and Asia. To help Charles with his studies, Wallace sent him birds, as well as sought help on his own theory of evolution. When Charles read Wallace’s theory, he was shocked, it had basically replicated his own. After years of even further scientific research, Charles finally introduced his theory of evolution to the public. He did this was by reading a letter at a meeting of the Linnean society. The next year, in November of 1859, Charles published his best-known work, which included a detailed explanation of his theory; the book is known as On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural