![]() ![]() Each was distinctive from mainland finches, and this set Darwin to thinking. In the Galapagos Islands, 650 miles off the coast of Ecuador, Darwin identified 14 varieties of finches-not just breeds or tribes, but species (because they bred true, and bred only among their own kind). He made acute observations of birds, turtles and mammals, which gradually germinated into an idea that, though it had no new component to it, served to revolutionize almost every aspect of Western thought: the evolution of species by natural selection. A year later, much to the chagrin of his father, he signed on as resident naturalist to HMS Beagle, a scientific exploratory ship, which was embarking on a five-year mission around the world.ĭuring his service on the Beagle, Darwin decided to give up pretensions of becoming a minister and opted for the life of a scientist-naturalist. He found, however, that he was more interested in his hobby-the study of nature.Įven while studying for the ministry, Darwin embarked on a field trip with Adam Sedgwick (one of the “big three” founders of modern geology) and earned encouragement for his clear skills as a naturalist. He went back to university and studied to be a minister of the Church of England. He was born in a mansion, son of a well-to-do physician and grandson of two of the most famous (and rich) men of his time: scientist and poet Erasmus Darwin and on his mother’s side, Josiah Wedgwood, well known even today for his distinctive porcelain.Īs a young man Darwin studied medicine but realized that his squeamish disposition made it impractical to take it up as a career. Though his life began and ended in the 19 th century, his ideas had a profound effect on life and thought in the West throughout the 20 th century.īorn the very same day as Abraham Lincoln, 4,000 miles away in the New World, Darwin did not share the emancipator’s humble beginnings. 12.Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire (England), in 1809 and died in Kent in 1882. This exhibit opening coincides with the MSU Museum’s Annual Darwin Discovery Day, hands-on science education program, also on Feb. In 1859, the same year Origin of Species was published, Darwin was awarded the Wollaston Medal–the highest honor bestowed by the Society in recognition of his scientific contributions to the field of Geology.ĭarwin’s geological experiences imbued him with a grasp the immensity of geologic time and a realization of the contribution of both gradual and abrupt geological processes in shaping the physical environment, processes that affect the adaptation and survival of species. Upon his return to London Darwin was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. Three weeks before receiving his fateful invitation to join the Beagle, Darwin spent a week “geologizing“ in Wales under the supervision of Adam Sedgwick, the eminent Cambridge professor of geology best known for proposing the Devonian and Cambrian Periods of the geological time scale.Īmong Darwin’s geological contributions during the Beagle expedition were his compilation of one of the first geological maps of South America, his collection of vertebrate fossils from Patagonia (southern Chile and Argentina), and his proposed explanation for the formation of circular coral islands (atolls). John Stevens Henslow, a former Professor of Mineralogy. The young Charles Darwin had a rock collection and was largely self-taught in mineralogy and crystallography.ĭarwin’s formal geological training consisted of extracurricular lectures in mineralogy as a medical student in Edinburgh and, later, the tutelage of his mentor at Cambridge University, the Rev. Before he formulated his ideas about evolution by natural selection, Charles Darwin considered himself more a geologist than zoologist, and “doing geology“ was one of his main occupations during the five-year voyage of the Beagle. ![]()
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