CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1892)

Was an english naturalist, geogolist and biologist. Known for his contributions to
evolutionary biology. He was famous because he came up with an idea that changed
the way we think about life on earth forever; The theory of evolution.
He was BORN in February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England and died on April 19,1882
at the age of 73.
His father’s name was Robert Darwin and his mother´s name was Susanah Darwin. He
was the fifth of six children, his father was a doctor and his mother was a Physician.

DARWIN´S BEGINNINS
He attained his basic education in 1818 at Anglican Shewsbury School, before
attending the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1825. He didn´t show much
interest in Medicine but he did for Botany and Geology, that was his true passion. He
graduated with a distinction in 1831, in the same year Darwin set sail on the HMS
Beagle, a naval survey ship. That journey would change Darwin’s life. He was there to
collect plant and animal specimens from the countries and islands the ship visited. The
voyage took five years.
For Darwin the most important part of the journey was the time he spent in the
Galapagos Islands. These islands are the home to plants and animals that cant be
found anywhere in the world. Darwin noticed that each of the diferents islands were
home to a different types of tortois.
When the Beagle returned to England, and Darwin began to study the specimens, he
had collected in more detail, realized that the diferences is in finches of the galapagos
islandas followed a similar patern to those he had observed in the tortois.
The finches from all of the islands were similar, but birds from different islands had
diferents beaks. Darwin started to study other animals and plants and he began to
piece together his theory of natural selection wich explains how populations evolve.
Darwin didn´t published his findings straight away because he knew that would be
extremly controversial and upset many people. When “On the origins of the species”
finally came out in 1859 it was a massive talking point because it challenged the truth
of the creation story found in the bible. A revolutionary book that change the way
Biology was understood giving rise to new scientific clearence. In this book Darwin lay
down the scientific principle that each species had not always been the way we know it
today, rather each one had changed and altered over time.
Darwin’s The Origin of Species was published in 1859 at the time of religious and social
controversy. The long-sanctioned position of the human being, that is the creation of
Gods hands, was suddenly shaken with the publication of Darwin's work. "Darwin's
work caused a sensation, not to say a scandal, partly because it implied that, just as
there was no divine origin of species, so there was no divine origin of man, in fact, man
was just another species, a highly developed ape"

By the 1870´s the scientific comunity and a majority of the educated public had
accepted evolution as a fact. His prepositions that all species of live have descended
from common ancestors is now accepted and considered a fundamental concept in
science.
Darwin married his cousin, Emma Wedgewood in 1839 at the age of 29. The couple
had ten children.
The famed naturalist, best known for his theories of evolution and natural selection,
suffered a fatal heart attack on April 19, 1882, after having survived a series of heart
attacks in the previous years. Throughout his life, he also had problems with his
stomach and often had bouts of nausea, both symptoms related to heart problems.