Darwin's Theory Essay

Lee Shazier

BIO 1040

Darwin’s Theory

October 17, 2008

Charles Darwin was a prominent scientist, one of the greatest in the history of biology research. He was especially noted for his studies of natural history. From a young boy Darwin acquired a great interest in observing birds and collecting insects to study. However, Darwin’s eminent talent was yet to be discovered. At 16 he attended medical School in Scotland, in which he found boring. His father recognized his lack of interest in becoming a doctor and later sent him off to study for the clergy. At first he was agreeable to the idea and started studies at the University of Cambridge, England in 1827. Religious studies did not exemplify a particular role in life that he was searching far. However, it was at Cambridge where he befriended John S. Henslow, who was a professor of botany. Henslow and Darwin friendship grew strong, and lead to many talks about natural world. It is said, that was the point of discovered of his great interest in becoming a naturalist.

Darwin started his first works on the ship HMS Beagle. During the five year expedition he traveled to South America and the South Pacific. The book Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell encourage in his interest in the study of land forms. He adopted some of Lyell’s study of land form, and went on to explore the theory of land change, new habitats would form and that animal would have to adapt to these changes. The expedition ended in October 1836. Darwin’s collections from the voyage were praised by many Scientist. A bird specialist, or ornithologist, studied Darwin's bird collections from the Galapagos Islands, located about 1,000 km west of South America. He reported that Darwin had collected 13 similar but separate species of finches, each finch species had a distinctive bill specialized for a particular food source. Other experts studied Darwin's fossils and classified them as remains of extinct mammals. The fossils included rodents the size of hippopotamuses. The similarities of the Galapagos finches led Darwin to infer that the finches shared a common ancestor. The similarities between the fossil mammals Darwin collected and modern mammals led him to believe that species change over time(Wikipedia.org).

Darwin made very distinctive discoveries about the tortoises and finches of the Galapagos. “A tortoise of finch on one island was not quite like a tortoise or finch on another island. By looking at the shell of a tortoise of the beak of a finch you could tell which island it had come from (Darwin, 2008). The Galapagos tortoise most closely resembled the South American tortoises; isolated on these remote islands, these tortoises has evolved distinctive forms (Johnson, 1998-2008). “Of course, because of adaptation to localized habitats, island forms are not identical to those on the nearby continents. The turtles have evolved different shell shapes, for example; those living in moist habitats have dome-shaped shells while others living in dry places have low, saddle-backed shells with the front of the shell bent up to expose the head and neck” (Johnson, 1998-2008).

During BIO 1040 class observation of about 6 turtles, each turtle observed had a distinct trait and characteristics for that allowed for survival. One of the turtle is a tortoise as well, in other words it adaption allows it to live on both water and land.

Darwin evolution-related experiments and investigations culminated in books on the movement of climbing plants, insectivorous plants, the effects of cross and self fertilization of plants, different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. He later published the book ‘The Power of Movement in Plants’. At the end, in his last book, he returned to the effect ‘earthworms’ have on soil formation. Darwin’s works has been passed down through the generations of other scientist.