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Charles Darwin: Where Do We Come From?

Decent Essays

Everyone loves a good underdog story, where the nobody becomes the somebody. But, when does this phenomenon happen in real life? Charles Darwin’s story is fairly close. Though he was from a wealthy family, he was very shy and reserved. He was sort of the ‘family disappointment,’ considering he did not want to follow his father’s footsteps to become a doctor. Rather, he was interested in nature. According to an article by PewResearchCenter, Darwin’s father assumed he had no sense of direction; a typical rebellious teen. Little did he know what would eventually come of Darwin’s interest in nature. While studying botany at Cambridge University, Darwin took up an offer to be an unpaid naturalist on the HMS Beagle. The naval vessel took its voyagers to South America. Darwin took advantage of his time there by observing many plants and animals, as well as collecting fossils to take back home with him. One of the most notable stops was to the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin studied the behavior of different birds. Though he was no bird expert, Darwin noted many observations that led to his theory of evolution. He wanted to answer the age old question, “Where do we come from?” …show more content…

The first factor being that every individual animal has its own variations that distinguish it from its parents. He studied and understood the effects of this; unfortunately, the actual study of genetics did not fully arise until the early 20th century. The second factor is that some of these variations offer great advantages. These variations are adapted to help the animal live longer such as having camouflage to hide from predators. Overtime these variations could even lead to a new species. In his study of birds, he observed that they ate a variety of food, which led to his hypothesis that natural selection shaped their beaks according to the ford

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