Named after the tortoises which themselves were named after saddles. Also called Las Islas Encantadas (the Enchanted Islands: enchanted as in "bewitched" or "ensorcelled", NOT as in "wonderfully enchanting")
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882)
Childhood and Education:
- Born same day as Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12, 1809)
- Wealthy family of doctors
- Only a mediocre school kid, more interested in chasing rats, shooting birds, and playing with dogs
- In 1825 went off to University of Edinburgh to study medicine (like dad and granddad).
- Did not like the sight of blood, and found medicine boring
- Took a geology class, found it boring too
- Did learn taxidermy on the side, from a freed Guyana slave
- Over summer vacation, would learn about local wildlife
- As member of Plinian Society (a naturalist society), presented his first papers
- 1827, quit med school
- In 1827, went to Christ's College at Cambridge University to study for the clergy
- Did not take to studying very much
- Was VERY impressed by Botany classes with John Henslow, and began to take more interest in Natural History
- By Feb. 1829, was already doubting he could be a clergyman, and was more interested in studying Nature
- Began to dream about traveling to South America (or anyplace in the tropics)
- Graduated in 1831, plans to travel to the Canary's with a friend fell apart with the latter's death
- Around graduation time, saw a lecture by geologist Adam Sedgwick, and was hooked on geology! Studied field geology with Sedgwick, and learned of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology
The Voyage
- Coming back from Wales with Sedgwick, found out position of "Captain's Companion"
available on the HMS Beagle
for its five year mapping mission
- Captain Robert FitzRoy, as a member of the upper class, would not be allowed to fraternize with the crew
- The person would be expected to serve as naturalist (at least in part) for this mapping voyage
- Henslow gave Darwin a copy of vol. 1 of Principles of Geology, with the warning that he "on no account accept the views therein advocated"
- Beagle left Plymouth on Dec. 27, 1831
- Darwin immediately fell seasick...
- At Cape Verde Islands, noted a shell bed 45 feet above sealevel, not quite parallel with sea level. Supported Lyellian view of uplift.
- Beagle mapped South America
- After 3 crewmen died, the ship's surgeon left. (This may also be because HE was supposed to have been the naturalist).
- Darwin collected many living plants and animals, but also rocks and fossils
- Noted that the fossil forms were more similar to modern South American animals, though often of much larger size, than to comparably-aged fossils from Europe
- Found evidence of terrestrial-marine-terrestrial transitions in the rock record, even for relatively recent rocks
- Witnessed an earthquake, noting the rise of land in the region and seeing it as supporting Lyell's uniformitarian views
- Sept. 15, 1835: first sighting of Galápagos
- Sept. 16-Oct. 20, 1835: Exploration of Galápagos
- Main aspects that interested Darwin
- Islands were all volcanic, so very new
- All living things on it had their closest relations in South America
- The South American forms might be more commonly associated with very different (more humid environments)
- Why not animal and plant species from similar arid environments, but from other parts of the world?
- Each island had slightly different variations of same species or closely related
species
- Yet these species were not found elsewhere, even if some (e.g., marine iguanas) might do very well in other parts of the world
- Some closely related species on the islands had anatomies or behaviors more like many distantly related forms in other parts of the world (esp. the finches)
- Animals on these islands were essentially without fear of humans, and records show
them being more fearless in the past
- Similar records show similar traits in other islands (Falklands), although they were more cautious by the time that Darwin arrived
- Main aspects that interested Darwin
- Traveled on to Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, the Cocos Islands, Mauritius, Cape Town Colony, St. Helena and Ascension Islands, back to eastern South America for a few corrections in measurements, then the Azores and finally home to England (Oct. 2, 1836)
Darwin's Professional Life
- Brought information and data to colleagues, and was introduced to other naturalists (including Sir Richard Owen and Charles Lyell, both on October 29, 1836)
- Put forth as a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society on Nov. 1
- Gave his first talk on Jan. 4: about slow geological change in South America, and how its inhabitants adapted to those changes. Differed from Lyellian views on changing faunas, where old species simply disappeared and new ones appeared to replace them as environments changed.
- By 1837 began to keep several different notebooks on aspects of transmutation
- In October of 1838 read Thomas Malthus' "Essay on the Principle of Population".
- Married well (his first cousin, Emma Wedgewood): their combined wealth and family
stipends meant that they were better off than most lawyers or physicians, if less than a
big-time merchant, banker, or aristocrat
- Allowed Darwin to devote a lot of time to thinking and researching without needing to get revenue from publishing or teaching
- Darwin began to publish (on the origin of coral reefs and atolls; on the voyage of the Beagle; on the biology, anatomy, and taxonomy of barnacles)
- Became increasingly sickly during the late 1830s onward; almost never traveled far from Down House: even missed his own father's funeral
- During 1840s and 1850s, began to broach his transmutationist ideas with colleagues in private (in person, or by mail), including Lyell, Joseph Dalton Hooker, and Thomas Henry Huxley
- Late Spring 1856, Charles Lyell receives a letter from young Alfred Russell Wallace, describing his idea on the origin of species. Lyell shows it to Darwin, who is not overwhelmed
- June 18, 1858, Darwin receives a much longer, better worked out version of Wallace's
argument, which is MUCH closer to his own theory.
- In a gentleman's compromise, Lyell and Hooker present Darwin's papers and Wallace's paper jointly at the Linnean Society meeting on July 1, 1858
-
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life published on November 22, 1859
- Nearly all copies sold out on first day, and Darwin immediately start's editing a new version
- The Origin is just an abstract of the proposed much longer book Natural Selection, which is never finished (although parts were published separately)
- Late December 1859 Lord Palmerston (Prime Minister) proposed to Queen Victoria that Darwin be knighted. His proposal is blocked by Bishop Sameul Wilberforce
- The Origin had a far bigger audience than the 1858 papers, and soon discussions
of Darwin, Darwinism (term coined by T. H. Huxley in April 1860), and the implications of
evolution throughout the educated world
- Huxley helped bring ideas about evolution to the working classes, too
- Through all this, Darwin was largely a home-body
- Spring 1871: 6th Edition of The Origin is published: first version with the word "evolution" in it!
- Darwin continued to write throughout his life, although slowly. Focused mainly on plants and garden-related topics late in life.
- Died April 19, 1882
- Buried in Westminster Abby, about 20 feet from Sir Isaac Newton
