Charles Darwin was born in February 1809. From an early age, his main interests were plants and animals. When he was just 22 he was given the opportunity to sail around the world on HMS Beagle.
HMS Beagle stopped at many different places on its 5 year journey, at every different stop, Darwin looked at different species of plants and animals. He collected many specimens and made lots of observations between them. As HMS Beagle continued its journey, Darwin realised the variation in wildlife between the places he visited. One thing in particular that Darwin noted was the different species of finches, living on the Galápagos Islands. Each different species seemed to have a different shape beak, according to the food they eat; for example, one type of finch had a parrot like beak, ideal for cracking nuts, but another had a very small beak to eat the smaller seeds.
The modern theory of natural selection derives fro...
Charles Darwin as a young man, probably subsequent...
English: Caricature of Charles Darwin from Vanity ...Darwin asked himself if all the different types of finches could have evolved from just one species.
Charles Darwin wasn't the only one that thought evolution happened, his grandfather also wrote about evolution in his earlier life. At first many people did not agree with evolution, but Darwin had strong evidence that changed their minds. Charles Darwin thought about the evidence in a way that no-one else had, he was much more imaginative and intelligent, also he came up with an idea to explain how evolution could happen - natural selection.
Charles Darwin worked on his idea of natural selection for 20 years, he was contacting other scientists to try and gather more evidence to support his ideas.
Charles Darwin kept some pet pigeons. They were all many different shapes and colours. Darwin knew that they were all from the same species so he...