Darwin

For thousands of years the only explanation for the existence of life on Earth rested in the Old Testament, with God as the creator of all living organisms. In spite of this, the nineteenth century included curiosity of the organisms that saturate the planet. Fascinated explorers investigated and analyzed every aspect of the lives of organisms. The newfound curiosity conflicted with the belief of the Church, which stood by its belief of heavenly creation. The new evolutionary ideas became inhibited, as they were outlawed in classrooms and denounced by the Church itself. One of the few pioneers of biological research from the time period, Charles Darwin, fearlessly published his conclusions, including his many theories on the evolution of animal life. Throughout his life, Darwin produced numerous theories on evolution including his theory on the Struggle for Life/Natural Selection process and his Theory of Evolution, both of which appear in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Races in the Struggle for Life.

In 1809, Susannah Wedgwood conceived her son, Charles Darwin, in Shrewsbury, England. Darwin’s influences in his work can be traced as far back as his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, who proposed his own theory of evolution in the 1790’s. The elder Darwin’s theory, however, lacked physical evidence to support and promote the general idea of evolution. To ensure the same would not happen to him, Charles pursued the finest education possible, studying at both Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities. In 1831 he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Cambridge, and soon thereafter began his exploration of the world. Darwin was then called upon as an expert naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle, traveling across multiple continents and finding a few early discoveries that sparked an interest, leading to increased exploration and analysis. For example, on one of the Beagle’s stops in South America, Darwin found fossils of extinct animals that closely resemble those of modern species. He also found variations of plants and animals in the Galapagos Islands of the same general types as those in South America (Pond 38). Both of these findings lead to more research and analysis on the topic of evolution as far as species and organisms. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, however, was not restricted to animals, as he developed beliefs that the earth itself evolves over time. These beliefs developed from geological observations aboard the Beagle, including finding evidence in Chile that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions affect the elevation of the earth, and evidence that the Andes Mountain Range has risen several thousand feet over time. Elevation analysis like this lead to Darwin’s Theory on the Formation of Coral Reef, which explains that Coral Animals live only on mountain tops no lower than 120 feet below sea level, therefore the underwater mountain tops on the bottom of the ocean that coral reef exist on were once located high above their current altitudes (de Beer 509). All of the aforementioned discoveries in Darwin’s early explorations led to further analysis and development of theories on the origin of all species.

One of Darwin’s proposed evolutionary beliefs includes the Struggle for Life/Natural Selection process. The Struggle for Life in each habitat explains the solution to the ongoing problem that all living things produce more than enough offspring to replace themselves. The earth cannot support all of the reproduced organisms, therefore they must compete for food and shelter, with predators, weather, and environment affecting their chances of survival. The deciding factor in surviving the Struggle for Life is the process of Natural Selection. Natural Selection a selective process in which species with more favorable traits own a better chance of surviving in a certain environment than those with less favorable traits (Pond 39). Darwin’s main example for the process of Natural Selection involves insects feeding off of the nectar of plants. When insects feed off of the nectar of plants, the pollen from that particular plant rubs off onto the insect, and thus is carried to a new plant. The cross pollination causes a reproduction of more nectar-feeding plants. However, insects favor the plants with the largest glands or nectaries, meaning the plants with large glands are reproduced my means of cross pollination more than those with small nectar glands. Eventually, the plants with small nectar glands die off, and the offspring of the nectar-producing plants develop bigger and bigger nectar glands, as the large glands are the most visited by the insects (Darwin 4). In Darwin’s words, the species with the less favorable traits either die, or lose those unfavorable traits in an adaptation, or evolution, in which only the favorable traits survive. Also, an idea closely related to these two processes