A report on Charles Darwin

Darwin, c. undefined 1854, when he was preparing On the Origin of Species for publication
A chalk drawing of the seven-year-old Darwin in 1816, with a potted plant, by Ellen Sharples
Bicentennial portrait by Anthony Smith of Darwin as a student, in the courtyard at Christ's College, Cambridge where he had rooms.
The round-the-world voyage of the Beagle, 1831–1836
Darwin (right) on the Beagle's deck at Bahía Blanca in Argentina, with fossils; caricature by Augustus Earle, the initial ship's artist.
As HMS Beagle surveyed the coasts of South America, Darwin theorised about geology and the extinction of giant mammals. Watercolour by the ship's artist Conrad Martens, who replaced Augustus Earle, in Tierra del Fuego.
While still a young man, Darwin joined the scientific elite. Portrait by George Richmond.
In mid-July 1837 Darwin started his "B" notebook on Transmutation of Species, and on page 36 wrote "I think" above his first evolutionary tree.
Darwin chose to marry his cousin, Emma Wedgwood.
Darwin in 1842 with his eldest son, William Erasmus Darwin
Darwin's "sandwalk" at Down House was his usual "Thinking Path".
Darwin aged 46 in 1855, by then working towards publication of his theory of natural selection. He wrote to Joseph Hooker about this portrait, "if I really have as bad an expression, as my photograph gives me, how I can have one single friend is surprising."
During the Darwin family's 1868 holiday in her Isle of Wight cottage, Julia Margaret Cameron took portraits showing the bushy beard Darwin grew between 1862 and 1866.
An 1871 caricature following publication of The Descent of Man was typical of many showing Darwin with an ape body, identifying him in popular culture as the leading author of evolutionary theory.
By 1878, an increasingly famous Darwin had suffered years of illness.
The adjoining tombs of John Herschel and Charles Darwin in the nave of Westminster Abbey, London
In 1881 Darwin was an eminent figure, still working on his contributions to evolutionary thought that had an enormous effect on many fields of science. Copy of a portrait by John Collier in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Unveiling of the Darwin Statue at the former Shrewsbury School building in 1897
In 1851 Darwin was devastated when his daughter Annie died. By then his faith in Christianity had dwindled, and he had stopped going to church.
A caricature of Darwin from a 1871 Vanity Fair
Statue of Darwin in the Natural History Museum, London

English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary biology.

- Charles Darwin
Darwin, c. undefined 1854, when he was preparing On the Origin of Species for publication

213 related topics with Alpha

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The title page of the 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species

On the Origin of Species

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The title page of the 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species
Darwin pictured shortly before publication
Cuvier's 1799 paper on living and fossil elephants helped establish the reality of extinction.
In mid-July 1837 Darwin started his "B" notebook on Transmutation of Species, and on page 36 wrote "I think" above his first evolutionary tree.
Darwin researched how the skulls of different pigeon breeds varied, as shown in his Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication of 1868.
A photograph of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) taken in Singapore in 1862
On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 2nd edition. By Charles Darwin, John Murray, London, 1860. National Museum of Scotland
American botanist Asa Gray (1810–1888)
John Gould's illustration of Darwin's rhea was published in 1841. The existence of two rhea species with overlapping ranges influenced Darwin.
This tree diagram, used to show the divergence of species, is the only illustration in the Origin of Species.
In the 1870s, British caricatures of Darwin with a non-human ape body contributed to the identification of evolutionism with Darwinism.
Huxley used illustrations to show that humans and apes had the same basic skeletal structure.
Haeckel showed a main trunk leading to mankind with minor branches to various animals, unlike Darwin's branching evolutionary tree.
The liberal theologian Baden Powell defended evolutionary ideas by arguing that the introduction of new species should be considered a natural rather than a miraculous process.
A modern phylogenetic tree based on genome analysis shows the three-domain system.

On the Origin of Species (or, more completely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life), published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin that is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology.

Beagle at Ponsonby Sound in the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, in March 1834; painting by the ship's draughtsman Conrad Martens

Second voyage of HMS Beagle

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The second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after the previous captain, Pringle Stokes, committed suicide.

The second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after the previous captain, Pringle Stokes, committed suicide.

Beagle at Ponsonby Sound in the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, in March 1834; painting by the ship's draughtsman Conrad Martens
Ship's chronometer from HMS Beagle made by Thomas Earnshaw. British Museum, London.
Robert FitzRoy
Darwin in 1840, after the voyage and publication of his Journal and Remarks
The voyage of Beagle
Scene on the quarter deck while anchored at Bahia Blanca, painted around 24 September 1832 most likely by Augustus Earle. Darwin is the central figure in a top hat, examining a specimen, FitzRoy the second figure to his left.
Native of Tierra del Fuego
Illustration of Darwin's rhea, published in 1841 in John Gould's description of birds collected on Beagle voyage
Cerro La Campana ("The Bell Mountain"), which Darwin ascended on 17 August 1834
Concepción after the earthquake, as drawn by Lieutenant John Clements Wickham of Beagle
The various Galápagos mockingbirds Darwin caught resembled the Chilean mockingbird Mimus thenka, but differed from island to island.
In 1837 HMS Beagle set off on a survey of Australia, shown here in an 1841 watercolour by Owen Stanley.
A Scelidotherium skeleton in Paris

At the age of 22, the graduate Charles Darwin hoped to see the tropics before becoming a parson and accepted the opportunity.

Lucretius

Evolution

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Change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.

Change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.

Lucretius
Alfred Russel Wallace
Thomas Robert Malthus
In 1842, Charles Darwin penned his first sketch of On the Origin of Species.
DNA structure. Bases are in the centre, surrounded by phosphate–sugar chains in a double helix.
Duplication of part of a chromosome
This diagram illustrates the twofold cost of sex. If each individual were to contribute to the same number of offspring (two), (a) the sexual population remains the same size each generation, where the (b) Asexual reproduction population doubles in size each generation.
Mutation followed by natural selection results in a population with darker colouration.
Simulation of genetic drift of 20 unlinked alleles in populations of 10 (top) and 100 (bottom). Drift to fixation is more rapid in the smaller population.
Homologous bones in the limbs of tetrapods. The bones of these animals have the same basic structure, but have been adapted for specific uses.
A baleen whale skeleton. Letters a and b label flipper bones, which were adapted from front leg bones, while c indicates vestigial leg bones, both suggesting an adaptation from land to sea.
Common garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) has evolved resistance to the defensive substance tetrodotoxin in its amphibian prey.
The four geographic modes of speciation
Geographical isolation of finches on the Galápagos Islands produced over a dozen new species.
Tyrannosaurus rex. Non-avian dinosaurs died out in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period.
The hominoids are descendants of a common ancestor.
As evolution became widely accepted in the 1870s, caricatures of Charles Darwin with an ape or monkey body symbolised evolution.

The theory of evolution by natural selection was conceived independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-19th century and was set out in detail in Darwin's book On the Origin of Species.

Wallace in 1895

Alfred Russel Wallace

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British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator.

British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator.

Wallace in 1895
Arenga pinnata sketched by Wallace on a visit to Celebes and later reworked by Walter Hood Fitch
A photograph from Wallace's autobiography shows the building Wallace and his brother John designed and built for the Neath Mechanics' Institute.
A map from The Malay Archipelago shows the physical geography of the archipelago and Wallace's travels around the area. The thin black lines indicate where Wallace travelled, and the red lines indicate chains of volcanoes.
An illustration from The Malay Archipelago depicts the flying frog Wallace discovered.
A photograph of Wallace taken in Singapore in 1862
Wallace's grave in Broadstone Cemetery, Broadstone, Dorset, which was restored by the A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund in 2000. It features a 7 ft tall fossil tree trunk from Portland mounted on a block of Purbeck limestone.
The Darwin–Wallace Medal was issued by the Linnean Society on the 50th anniversary of the reading of Darwin and Wallace's papers on natural selection. Wallace received the only gold example.
An illustration from the chapter on the application of natural selection to humans in Wallace's 1889 book Darwinism shows a chimpanzee.
A map of the world from The Geographical Distribution of Animals shows Wallace's six biogeographical regions.
The line separating the Indo-Malayan and the Austro-Malayan region in Wallace's On the Physical Geography of the Malay Archipelago (1863)
Spirit photograph taken by Frederick Hudson of Wallace and his late mother; he may have used double exposure.
Wallace and his signature on the frontispiece of Darwinism (1889)
Anthony Smith's statue of Wallace, looking up at a bronze model of a Wallace's golden birdwing butterfly. Natural History Museum, London, unveiled 7 November 2013
Alfred Russel Wallace, attributed to John William Beaufort (1864–1943), a portrait in the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum, London.
Corvus enca celebensis, Sula Islands, registered in 1861 at a forerunner of Naturalis Biodiversity Center
Toxorhamphus novaeguineae novaeguineae, Misool, Raja Ampat Islands, 1865
Pitohui ferrugineus leucorhynchus, Waigeo, West-Papua, no year
Nectarinia jugularis clementiae, Seram Island, 1865
Mino anais anais, South West Papua, 1863

His paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin's writings in 1858, which would later prompt Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species.

Modern biology began in the nineteenth century with Charles Darwin's work on evolution by natural selection.

Natural selection

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Differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype.

Differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype.

Modern biology began in the nineteenth century with Charles Darwin's work on evolution by natural selection.
Aristotle considered whether different forms could have appeared, only the useful ones surviving.
Part of Thomas Malthus's table of population growth in England 1780–1810, from his Essay on the Principle of Population, 6th edition, 1826
Charles Darwin noted that pigeon fanciers had created many kinds of pigeon, such as Tumblers (1, 12), Fantails (13), and Pouters (14) by selective breeding.
Evolutionary developmental biology relates the evolution of form to the precise pattern of gene activity, here gap genes in the fruit fly, during embryonic development.
During the industrial revolution, pollution killed many lichens, leaving tree trunks dark. A dark (melanic) morph of the peppered moth largely replaced the formerly usual light morph (both shown here). Since the moths are subject to predation by birds hunting by sight, the colour change offers better camouflage against the changed background, suggesting natural selection at work.
1: directional selection: a single extreme phenotype favoured. 2, stabilizing selection: intermediate favoured over extremes. 3: disruptive selection: extremes favoured over intermediate. X-axis: phenotypic trait Y-axis: number of organisms Group A: original population Group B: after selection
Different types of selection act at each life cycle stage of a sexually reproducing organism.
The peacock's elaborate plumage is mentioned by Darwin as an example of sexual selection, and is a classic example of Fisherian runaway, driven to its conspicuous size and coloration through mate choice by females over many generations.
Selection in action: resistance to antibiotics grows though the survival of individuals less affected by the antibiotic. Their offspring inherit the resistance.

Charles Darwin popularised the term "natural selection", contrasting it with artificial selection, which in his view is intentional, whereas natural selection is not.

Title page of the first edition of The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

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Title page of the first edition of The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
Embryology (here comparing a human and dog) provided one mode of evidence
Darwin's primary rhetorical strategy was to argue by analogy. Baboons, dogs, and "savages" provided his chief evidence for human evolution.
Darwin argued that the female peahen chose to mate with the male peacock who she believed had the most beautiful plumage.
Antoinette Blackwell, one of the first women to write a critique of Darwin
"The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!"
Charles Darwin's second book of theory involved many questions of Darwin's time.
On the Beagle voyage, Darwin met Fuegians including Jemmy Button who had been briefly educated in England.
He was shocked to encounter their relatives in Tierra del Fuego, who appeared to him to be primitive savages.
Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton, proposed that an interpretation of Darwin's theory was the need for eugenics to save society from "inferior" minds.

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection.

Several major ideas about evolution came together in the population genetics of the early 20th century to form the modern synthesis, including genetic variation, natural selection, and particulate (Mendelian) inheritance. This ended the eclipse of Darwinism and supplanted a variety of non-Darwinian theories of evolution.

Modern synthesis (20th century)

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Several major ideas about evolution came together in the population genetics of the early 20th century to form the modern synthesis, including genetic variation, natural selection, and particulate (Mendelian) inheritance. This ended the eclipse of Darwinism and supplanted a variety of non-Darwinian theories of evolution.
Darwin's pangenesis theory. Every part of the body emits tiny gemmules which migrate to the gonads and contribute to the next generation via the fertilised egg. Changes to the body during an organism's life would be inherited, as in Lamarckism.
Blending inheritance, implied by pangenesis, causes the averaging out of every characteristic, which as the engineer Fleeming Jenkin pointed out, would make evolution by natural selection impossible.
August Weismann's germ plasm theory. The hereditary material, the germplasm, is confined to the gonads and the gametes. Somatic cells (of the body) develop afresh in each generation from the germplasm.
William Bateson championed Mendelism.
Karl Pearson led the biometric school.
Sewall Wright introduced the idea of a fitness landscape with local optima.
Drosophila pseudoobscura, the fruit fly which served as Theodosius Dobzhansky's model organism
E. B. Ford studied polymorphism in the scarlet tiger moth for many years.
Julian Huxley presented a serious but popularising version of the theory in his 1942 book Evolution: The Modern Synthesis.
Ernst Mayr argued that geographic isolation was needed to provide sufficient reproductive isolation for new species to form.
George Gaylord Simpson argued against the naive view that evolution such as of the horse took place in a "straight-line". He noted that any chosen line is one path in a complex branching tree, natural selection having no imposed direction.
Speciation via polyploidy: a diploid cell may fail to separate during meiosis, producing diploid gametes which self-fertilize to produce a fertile tetraploid zygote that cannot interbreed with its parent species.
Ant societies have evolved elaborate caste structures, widely different in size and function.
Evolutionary developmental biology has formed a synthesis of evolutionary and developmental biology, discovering deep homology between the embryogenesis of such different animals as insects and vertebrates.
A 21st century tree of life showing horizontal gene transfers among prokaryotes and the saltational endosymbiosis events that created the eukaryotes, neither fitting into the 20th century's modern synthesis
Inputs to the modern synthesis, with other topics (inverted colours) such as developmental biology that were not joined with evolutionary biology until the turn of the 21st century

The modern synthesis was the early 20th-century synthesis reconciling Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's ideas on heredity in a joint mathematical framework.

Portrait of Lyell by George J. Stodart

Charles Lyell

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Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history.

Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history.

Portrait of Lyell by George J. Stodart
The main geographical divisions of Scotland
Charles Lyell at the British Association meeting in Glasgow 1840. Painting by Alexander Craig.
Lyell Family Grave in Brookwood Cemetery with a memorial to Lyell
"Professor Ichthyosaurus" shows his pupils the skull of extinct man, caricature of Lyell by Henry De la Beche (1830)
Lyell between 1865 and 1870
The frontispiece from Elements of Geology
Lyell argued that volcanoes like Vesuvius had built up gradually.
Lateral moraine on a glacier joining the Gorner Glacier, Zermatt, Switzerland.
Charles Darwin
Alfred Russel Wallace in 1862.
California's Mount Lyell group
Geological evidences of the antiquity of man, 1863

He was a close friend of Charles Darwin, and contributed significantly to Darwin's thinking on the processes involved in evolution.

Woodburytype print of Huxley (1880 or earlier)

Thomas Henry Huxley

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English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy.

English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy.

Woodburytype print of Huxley (1880 or earlier)
Thomas Henry Huxley – signature
Huxley, aged 21
HMS Rattlesnake by the ship's artist Oswald Brierly
Australian woman: Pencil drawing by Huxley
Huxley's grave in East Finchley Cemetery in north London
Huxley by Bassano c. 1883
Huxley's sketch of then hypothetical five-toed Eohippus being ridden by "Eohomo"
The frontispiece to Huxley's Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863): the image compares the skeletons of apes to humans. The gibbon (left) is double size.
Caricature of Huxley by Carlo Pellegrini in Vanity Fair 1871
From the portrait of A. Legros.
Photograph of Huxley (c. 1890)
Thomas Henry Huxley, c. 1885, from a carte de visite
Method and results, 1893
Huxley (right) and Richard Owen inspect a "water baby" in Edward Linley Sambourne's 1881 illustration

He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Portrait of Owen, c. 1878

Richard Owen

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English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist.

English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist.

Portrait of Owen, c. 1878
The young Richard Owen
Owen was the driving force behind the establishment, in 1881, of the British Museum (Natural History) in London.
Sheen Lodge, Richmond Park, home of Owen
Richard Owen in 1856 with the skull of a crocodile
Owen's coining of the word dinosaur in 1841
Owen's illustration of a camel's skeleton
Owen with a giant moa skeleton
This 1847 diagram by Richard Owen shows his conceptual archetype for all vertebrates
Statue of Owen in the Natural History Museum
Caricature of an elderly Owen, captioned "Old Bones", in the London magazine Vanity Fair, March 1873
1873 caricature of Owen "riding his hobby", by Frederick Waddy
Owen with his granddaughter Emily

An outspoken critic of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Owen agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred, but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's On the Origin of Species.