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Charles Darwin facts for kids

Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882) was an English naturalist . He was born in Shrewsbury , Shropshire . He is famous for his work on the theory of evolution .

Darwin's book On the Origin of Species was published in 1859. In it, Darwin suggested evidence that evolution has taken place. He also tried to explain how evolution works. Darwin's evolution theory is called natural selection . On the Origin of Species says that evolution and natural selection are the keys to understanding the diversity of life on Earth .

Early Life and Education

Voyage of the hms beagle, before darwin, death and funeral, commemoration, charles darwin quotes, interesting facts about charles darwin, related pages, images for kids.

Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury , Shropshire , on February 12, 1809, at his family's home, The Mount. He was the fifth of six children. His father was Robert Darwin , a wealthy society doctor , and his mother was Susannah Darwin. (Her maiden name was Wedgwood).

Eight-year-old Charles already enjoyed natural history and collecting when he joined the day school run by its preacher in 1817. That July, his mother died. In September 1818, he joined his older brother Erasmus at the nearby Anglican Shrewsbury School as a boarder .

Darwin spent the summer of 1825 as a doctor's apprentice. He helped his father treat the poor of Shropshire, before going to the University of Edinburgh Medical School in October of 1825. Darwin did not enjoy medical school, so he neglected his studies. He learned taxidermy in about 40 daily hour-long sessions from John Edmonstone , a freed black slave who had accompanied Charles Waterton in the South American rainforest .

Darwin's father thought he did not pay enough attention to his medical studies, so he sent Charles to Christ's College, Cambridge . Charles was to study to become an Anglican country parson. Darwin had to stay at Cambridge until June of 1831. He planned to visit Tenerife with some classmates after graduation to study natural history in the tropics . In preparation, he joined Adam Sedgwick 's geology course. On August 4, Darwin traveled with Sedgwick to spend two weeks mapping strata in Wales .

Darwin spent almost five years aboard a Royal Navy exploring ship, the HMS Beagle . The voyage took place from December 1831 to October 1836. At the time, Britain had by far the largest navy in the world and an empire that owned and ruled land all over the world. One of the jobs of the Beagle was to make charts of all the coastal areas. Darwin was responsible for collecting and making notes about the animals, plants, and the geology of the countries they visited.

Darwin collected items everywhere the ship weighed anchor . He found huge fossils of recently extinct mammals . After experiencing an earthquake in Chile , he noticed the land had been raised. He knew of raised beaches elsewhere, high in the Andes , with fossil seashells and trees which had once grown on a sandy beach. He observed the earth was constantly changing, with land rising in some places and sinking in others. He collected birds and insects and sent shipments back to Cambridge for experts to identify.

Darwin was the first dedicated naturalist to visit the Galapagos Islands , off the west coast of Ecuador . He noticed that some of the birds were like mockingbirds on the mainland, but different enough to be placed in separate species . He began to wonder how so many new species (groups of similar plants or animals) came to be on these islands.

When Darwin got back to England, he edited a series of scientific reviews of the voyage and wrote a personal journal which we know as The Voyage of the Beagle . It is a famous natural history travel diary.

Darwin's Theory

Before the nineteenth century, the accepted theory for the extinction of species was called Catastrophism . It stated that species went extinct due to catastrophes. These catastrophes were often followed by the formation of new species ex nihilo (out of nothing). The extinct species could then be found as fossils. The new species were considered unchangeable. This theory partially matched the Flood occurrence in the Bible .

In the early nineteenth century, several new theories started to compete with Catastrophism. One of the most important ones was developed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829). He observed that every new generation inherits the traits of its ancestors . He suggested that traits or organs become enhanced with repeated use. He also suggested that traits or organs become weakened or even removed altogether when they are not used. Lamarck suggested that parents pass these improvements or losses directly to their offspring.

While he was on H.M.S. Beagle , and later back home in London , Darwin came across the ideas of Rev. T.R. Malthus . Malthus had realized that, although humans were able to double their population every 25 years, it did not happen. He thought the reason was that a struggle for existence (or resources ) caused them not to multiply. If population numbers increased, then famine , wars , and diseases caused more deaths. Darwin, who knew that all living things were able to increase their numbers, began to think about why some survived while others did not. His answer took years to develop.

Although Darwin started thinking about this in 1838, it took a full twenty years before his ideas became public. By 1844, he was able to write a draft of the main ideas in his notebook. Historians think that he did not talk about his theory because he was afraid of public criticism. He knew his theory, which did not discuss religion, challenged the truth of the Book of Genesis . In 1858, he heard that another biologist, Alfred Russel Wallace , had the same ideas about natural selection . Darwin and Wallace's ideas were first published in the Journal of the Linnaean Society in London, in 1858. Then, Darwin published his theory in a book the next year. The name of the book was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life . This is usually called The Origin of Species .

The theory of evolution says that all living things on Earth, including plants , animals , and microbes, come from a common ancestor by slowly changing throughout the generations. Darwin suggested that the way living things changed over time is through natural selection . Those who fit best into their environment have the best chance to survive and breed. Fitting into the place where you live is called adapting . Those who are less well-adapted tend not to survive. If they do not survive well enough to raise young, this means they do not pass on their genes . In this way, the species slowly changes. Only the strongest genes get passed along to the next generations. This is sometimes called " survival of the fittest ."

The first chapter of the Origin deals with domesticated animals , such as cattle and dogs. Darwin reminded readers of the huge changes mankind had made in its domestic animals, which were once wild species. The changes were made by selective breeding – choosing animals with desirable characters to breed from. This had been done generation after generation until our modern breeds were made. Darwin suggested that what man had done deliberately might happen in nature over a much longer time. He suggested the same for plants and other animals.

Darwin wrote several other books, most of which are also important.

In 1843 Darwin, who already had two children with his wife Emma, bought Down House in the village of Downe , Kent . The Darwins had ten children: two died in infancy. Charles was a devoted father to his children.

Of his surviving children, George , Francis , and Horace became Fellows of the Royal Society . George was an astronomer , Francis was a botanist , and Horace was a civil engineer . All three were knighted . Another son, Leonard, went on to be a soldier , politician , economist , eugenicist , and mentor of the statistician and evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher .

In 1882, Darwin was diagnosed with what was called " angina pectoris ," which then meant coronary thrombosis and disease of the heart.

He died at Down House on April 19, 1882. His last words were to his family, telling Emma, "I am not the least afraid of death—Remember what a good wife you have been to me—Tell all my children to remember how good they have been to me." Then while she rested, he repeatedly told his children Henrietta and Francis, "It's almost worthwhile to be sick to be nursed by you."

The funeral was held on Wednesday, April 26, and was attended by thousands of people, including family, friends, scientists, philosophers, and dignitaries.

By the time of his death, Darwin and his colleagues had convinced most scientists that his theory of evolution was correct. He was regarded as a great scientist had revolutionized scientific ideas.

During Darwin's lifetime, many geographical features were given his name. An expanse of water adjoining the Beagle Channel was named Darwin Sound by Robert FitzRoy after Darwin and two or three other men saved their boats when from being swept out to sea by a collapsing glacier that created a large wave. The nearby Mount Darwin in the Andes was named in celebration of Darwin's 25th birthday. When the Beagle was surveying Australia in 1839, Darwin's friend John Lort Stokes sighted a natural harbor which the ship's captain Wickham named Port Darwin . A nearby settlement was renamed Darwin in 1911, and it became the capital city of Australia's Northern Territory .

Stephen Heard identified 389 species that have been named after Darwin. In one example, the group of tanagers (birds) similar to those Darwin found in the Galápagos Islands became commonly known as " Darwin's finches " in 1947. This started the legends about their importance to his work.

Darwin's work has continued to be celebrated by many publications and events. The Linnean Society of London has remembered Darwin's achievements by the award of the Darwin–Wallace Medal since 1908. Darwin Day is celebrated every year, and in 2009, worldwide events were prepared for the bicentenary (200th anniversary) of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species .

Darwin has been commemorated in the U.K. by the Bank of England . His portrait, along with a hummingbird and HMS Beagle , is printed on the reverse side of £10 banknotes.

A life-size seated statue of Darwin can be seen in the main hall of the Natural History Museum in London.

A statue of Darwin is in front of Shrewsbury Library, the building that used to house Shrewsbury School, which Darwin attended as a boy. It was put there in 1897. Another statue of Darwin as a young man is located on the grounds of Christ's College, Cambridge .

Darwin College , a postgraduate college at Cambridge University , is named after the Darwin family.

Darwin's Down House and its contents are now open to the public.

• “A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, – a mere heart of stone.”
• “The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.”
• "One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and weakest die."
• "I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions."
• Charles Darwin was born in England on the same day that Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky .
• He studied and ate exotic (rare or unusual) animals both at school and in his travels.
• Charles dropped out of medical school.
• Charles married his first cousin, Emma.
• He wrote a pro/con list on the subject of marriage.
• Darwin played backgammon with his wife every evening between 8 and 8:30 PM.
• The highest peak of Tierra del Fuego is named after him.
• His work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published twenty years after his travels.
• Herbert Spencer is the philosopher who coined the term "Survival of the Fittest," even though we think of Darwin when we hear that phrase.
• Erasmus Darwin
• Alfred Russel Wallace
• Charles Lyell
• Charles Darwin's books

Bicentennial portrait by Anthony Smith of Darwin as a student, in the courtyard at Christ's College, Cambridge where he had rooms

Darwin (right) on the Beagle' s deck at Bahía Blanca in Argentina , with fossils; caricature by Augustus Earle, the initial ship's artist.

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's "sandwalk" at Down House was his usual "Thinking Path."

Darwin aged 46 in 1855, by then working toward 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 the 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.

Statue of Darwin in the Natural History Museum , London

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 an 1871 Vanity Fair

• This page was last modified on 30 June 2024, at 17:09. Suggest an edit .

ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Charles darwin.

Charles Darwin and his observations while aboard the HMS Beagle , changed the understanding of evolution on Earth.

Biology, Earth Science, Geography, Physical Geography

Historic photograph of Charles Darwin in profile.

Photograph by Chronical/Alamy Stock Photo

Charles Darwin was born in 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. His father, a doctor, had high hopes that his son would earn a medical degree at Edinburgh University in Scotland, where he enrolled at the age of sixteen. It turned out that Darwin was more interested in natural history than medicine—it was said that the sight of blood made him sick to his stomach. While he continued his studies in theology at Cambridge, it was his focus on natural history that became his passion.

In 1831, Darwin embarked on a voyage aboard a ship of the British Royal Navy, the HMS Beagle, employed as a naturalist . The main purpose of the trip was to survey the coastline of South America and chart its harbors to make better maps of the region. The work that Darwin did was just an added bonus.

Darwin spent much of the trip on land collecting samples of plants, animals, rocks, and fossils . He explored regions in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and remote islands such as the Galápagos. He packed all of his specimens into crates and sent them back to England aboard other vessels.

Upon his return to England in 1836, Darwin’s work continued. Studies of his samples and notes from the trip led to groundbreaking scientific discoveries. Fossils he collected were shared with paleontologists and geologists, leading to advances in the understanding of the processes that shape the Earth’s surface. Darwin’s analysis of the plants and animals he gathered led him to question how species form and change over time. This work convinced him of the insight that he is most famous for— natural selection . The theory of natural selection says that individuals of a species are more likely to survive in their environment and pass on their genes to the next generation when they inherit traits from their parents that are best suited for that specific environment. In this way, such traits become more widespread in the species and can lead eventually to the development of a new species .

In 1859, Darwin published his thoughts about evolution and natural selection in On the Origin of Species . It was as popular as it was controversial. The book convinced many people that species change over time—a lot of time—suggesting that the planet was much older than what was commonly believed at the time: six thousand years.

Charles Darwin died in 1882 at the age of seventy-three. He is buried in Westminster Abbey in London, England.

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Charles Darwin

A gentle man, Darwin was once called “the dearest, sweetest, loveliest old grandpa that ever was.”

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Introduction

(1809–82). The theory of evolution by natural selection that was developed by Charles Darwin revolutionized the study of living things . In his Origin of Species (1859) he provided a scientific explanation of how the diverse species of plants and animals have descended over time from common ancestors. His theory remains central to the foundations of modern biology . Moreover, by demonstrating how natural laws govern the world of living things, Darwin helped usher in a new era in the cultural and intellectual history of humankind.

Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England, on February 12, 1809. Darwin’s father was a successful and wealthy physician; his mother was a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood , the famous British potter. She died when Charles was eight years old, and the boy was reared by three older sisters, who constantly found fault with him.

Darwin was such an indifferent student that his father said, “You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.” He had no interest in the classical languages and ancient history taught in school. Instead, he liked to collect shells, birds’ eggs, and coins. He also watched birds and insects and helped his brother make chemical experiments at home.

At the age of 16, Darwin began to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. There too he found the courses dull, and watching operations made him ill. In 1828 he transferred to Cambridge, intending to become a clergyman. Instead, he devoted most of his time to studying plants and animals and later to geology. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1831.

Around the World in the Beagle

Then came the event that shaped his life—an appointment as unpaid naturalist on the exploring ship Beagle . It left England on December 27, 1831, to chart the southern coasts of South America and sail around the world. The voyage, with many side trips on land, lasted until October 1836. During those five years Darwin examined geologic formations, collected fossils , and studied plants and animals. In the jungles, mountains, and islands he visited, he saw evidence of the many geologic changes that have been occurring over the course of eons—for example, the land gradually rising in some places and falling in others. He also considered the great diversity of living things, even in the depths of the ocean where no humans could appreciate their beauty. He thought about how the fossils he collected suggested that some kinds of mammals had died out. And he returned home filled with questions.

Success and Seclusion

Back home, Darwin settled in London and quietly began work on what would become his great theory of evolution, developed largely in 1837–39. Meanwhile, he wrote up the Journal of his scientific work on the Beagle . He also consulted experts to help him identify the thousands of fossils and specimens he had brought back, and he published the results. In 1839 he was admitted to the prestigious Royal Society.

Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood in 1839, and they eventually had 10 children. He began to avoid society, and in 1842 the couple moved to the isolated village of Downe. This was partly owing to physical illness: a few years earlier, Darwin had begun to experience the heart palpitations and nausea that would plague him for the rest of his life. But he also sought seclusion because he knew that his radical theory would shock and offend Victorian society. Believing in evolution, Darwin said, was “like confessing a murder.” And so he continued this work in secret.

Darwin Attacks the Great Problem

In Darwin’s time, the nearly universally accepted view was that God had created all species of living things in their current forms and that their attributes were the result of God’s design. Nevertheless, Darwin was not the first to suggest that living things might change over time. Since ancient times, people have proposed other ways that plants and animals could have developed. The first broad theory of evolution was proposed in the early 19th century by French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck . He maintained that plants and animals evolved because of an inborn tendency to progress from simple to complex forms. Environment, however, modified this progression and so did use or disuse of parts. He thought that giraffes, for example, developed long necks by straining to reach the leaves of trees, while snakes lost their legs by crawling.

Darwin knew about Lamarck’s theory of evolution. His grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, had published several books expounding similar ideas. He felt, however, that early writers on the subject had speculated too much and had not based their theories on a solid foundation of observable phenomena. In developing his theory of evolution, Darwin drew upon observations made in a wide array of scientific disciplines and conducted a great many experiments.

Darwin also happened to read An Essay on the Principle of Population , by British economist Thomas Malthus . Malthus had undertaken to prove that human populations tend to increase more rapidly than food and other necessities. The result is a struggle in which some people succeed and become wealthy while others fail or even starve.

Darwin applied this theory to the world of nature. Plants and animals, he knew, reproduce so rapidly that the Earth could not hold them if all their young survived. This meant that there was a constant struggle for space, food, and shelter, as well as against enemies and unfavorable conditions. Certain hawks, for example, struggle, or compete, with each other for the mice they eat, and the poorest hunters go hungry. Mice, in turn, struggle to keep from being caught by hawks. In frigid winters living things struggle against the cold. Some endure it, while others fail to keep themselves warm enough and die. Although Darwin did not coin the phrase “survival of the fittest,” his ideas about struggle expressed the same notion.

Struggling and living or dying could not lead to evolution if all members of each living kind or species were exactly alike. Darwin found that members of a single species vary greatly in shape, size, color, strength, and so on. He also believed that most of these variations could be inherited.

Under the constant struggle to exist, organisms with harmful variations are more likely to die before they can reproduce. And, on average, living things with useful variations are more likely to survive and bear young and thus to pass on their helpful variations. When their descendants vary still more, the process is repeated. In other words, the struggle for existence selects organisms with helpful variations but makes others die out. Darwin called this process natural selection.

Over the ages, Darwin believed, changes from natural selection produce a slow succession of new plants, animals, and other organisms. These changes have enabled living things to go into all sorts of environments and become fitted, or adapted , to many different types of life. Darwin called his theory descent by modification, because he proposed that all living things were descended from earlier forms.

Publication

Darwin wrote a short sketch of his theory in 1842 and a longer one in 1844. Instead of publishing the second statement, however, he continued his investigations. He also wrote books on coral reefs, volcanic islands, barnacles, and the geology of South America. Not until 1856 did he begin what would be a multivolume work on evolution.

In 1858 he received a manuscript from a young naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, who also had developed a theory of evolution by natural selection. With Wallace’s approval, short statements by both men were published late in 1858. Darwin went on to write his famous book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection , which appeared in 1859.

The book caused a tremendous stir, and not just in scientific circles. The general public also read, discussed, and vigorously defended or denounced Darwin’s theory, which became a popular topic in society salons. Some religious leaders believed that evolution was incompatible with their teachings and so opposed it. Newspapers publicized with great scorn a conclusion that Darwin had been careful to avoid—that humans are descended from apes. Evolutionary imagery spread through many other fields, including literature, economics, and political and social science. During Darwin’s lifetime, the scientific community largely accepted his theory of descent, though it was slower to adopt his idea of natural selection.

After completing the Origin of Species , Darwin began The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication , which showed how rapidly some organisms had evolved under artificial selection, the selective breeding of plants and animals by humans. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex , published in 1871, discussed human evolution . Later books dealt with earthworms, orchids, climbing plants, and plants that eat insects.

Darwin became very weak in 1881 and could no longer work. He died on April 19, 1882, in Downe, and was buried in Westminster Abbey among England’s greatest citizens.

Darwin himself never claimed to provide proof of evolution or of the origin of species. His claim was that if evolution had occurred, a number of otherwise mysterious facts about plants and animals could be easily explained. After his death, however, direct evidence of evolution was observed, and evolution is now supported by a wealth of evidence from a variety of scientific fields.

Evolution has been rejected by members of some religious groups who prefer their theory of creationism. This attempts to explain some features of plant and animal life through a literal interpretation of the Bible. In the scientific community, however, there is little doubt that the general outline of Darwin’s theory of evolution is correct.

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Charles Darwin Primary Resource

Discover the events that led to darwin’s theory of evolution.

This Science primary resource introduces children to the life of Charles Darwin in this easy-to-read comic. Discover the events that led to his theory of evolution. What was Darwin’s favourite hobby? Where did he first encounter a rainforest? How many years did he spend writing about barnacles?

Pupils will learn about the different ways that Charles Darwin studied animals in our National Geographic Kids’ Science primary resource sheet.

The teaching resource can be used in study group tasks for a simple explanation of Darwin’s life and work. It could be used as a printed handout for each pupil to read themselves, or for display on the interactive whiteboard, as part of a whole class reading exercise.

Activity: Ask children to imagine they are Charles Darwin making notes on his discoveries in South America, and write a diary entry of what he may have seen or studied. They could include illustrations of different species. Pupils could research the meaning of ‘natural selection’ and write down their findings. Our Charles Darwin: Theory of Evolution resource could be used to help them.

N.B.  The following information for mapping the resource documents to the school curriculum is specifically tailored to the  English National Curriculum  and  Scottish Curriculum for Excellence . We are currently working to bring specifically tailored curriculum resource links for our other territories; including  South Africa ,  Australia  and  New Zealand . If you have any queries about our upcoming curriculum resource links, please email:  [email protected]

This Science primary resource assists with teaching the following Key Stage 2 Science (Year 6) objectives from the National Curriculum :

Pupils should be taught to:  

• recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago  
• recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents  
• identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution

Pupils might find out about the work of palaeontologists such as Mary Anning and about how Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace developed their ideas on evolution.

This Science primary resource assists with teaching the following Sciences First level objectives from the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence :

• By comparing generations of families of humans, plants and animals, I can begin to understand how characteristics are inherited

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Sciences Second level objectives :

• By exploring the characteristics offspring inherit when living things reproduce, I can distinguish between inherited and non- inherited characteristics.

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What is Charles Darwin famous for?

What is evolution, as charles darwin understood it, what was charles darwin’s educational background, what was charles darwin’s family life like, what were the social impacts of charles darwin’s work.

Charles Darwin

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• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Darwinism
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Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is the foundation upon which modern evolutionary theory is built. The theory was outlined in Darwin’s seminal work On the Origin of Species , published in 1859. Although Victorian England (and the rest of the world) was slow to embrace natural selection as the mechanism that drives evolution, the concept of evolution itself gained widespread traction by the end of Darwin’s life.

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution had three main components: that variation occurred randomly among members of a species; that an individual’s traits could be inherited by its progeny; and that the struggle for existence would allow only those with favorable traits to survive. Although many of his ideas have been borne out by modern science, Darwin didn’t get everything right: traces of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck ’s outdated theory of evolution remained in Darwin’s own. He was also unable to correctly establish how traits were inherited, which wasn’t clarified until the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel ’s work with peas.

Growing up, Charles Darwin was always attracted to the sciences. In 1825 his father sent him to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. There he was exposed to many of the dissenting ideas of the time, including those of Robert Edmond Grant, a former student of the French evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck . He transferred to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1828, where his mentors mostly endorsed the idea of providential design. A botany professor suggested he join a voyage on the HMS Beagle —a trip that would provide him with much of his evidence for the theory of evolution by natural selection .

Charles Darwin was born in England to a well-to-do family in 1809. His father was a doctor, and his mother—who died when he was only eight years old—was the daughter of a successful 18th-century industrialist. Darwin was not the first of his family to gravitate toward naturalism: his father’s father, Erasmus Darwin , was a physician, inventor, and poet who had developed his own theories on the evolution of species. Darwin later married his first cousin on his mother’s side, Emma Wedgwood. Together they had 10 children, 3 of whom died at a young age.

Charles Darwin’s theories hugely impacted scientific thought. But his ideas also affected the realms of politics, economics, and literature. More insidious were the ways that Darwin’s ideas were used to support theories such as social Darwinism and eugenics , which used biological determinism to advocate for the elimination of people deemed socially unfit. Although Darwin himself was an abolitionist, the social Darwinist ideas inspired by his work contributed to some of the most racist and classist social programs of the last 150 years.

Charles Darwin (born February 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire , England—died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent) was an English naturalist whose scientific theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies. An affable country gentleman, Darwin at first shocked religious Victorian society by suggesting that animals and humans shared a common ancestry. However, his nonreligious biology appealed to the rising class of professional scientists, and by the time of his death evolutionary imagery had spread through all of science , literature, and politics. Darwin, himself an agnostic , was accorded the ultimate British accolade of burial in Westminster Abbey , London.

Darwin formulated his bold theory in private in 1837–39, after returning from a voyage around the world aboard HMS Beagle , but it was not until two decades later that he finally gave it full public expression in On the Origin of Species (1859), a book that has deeply influenced modern Western society and thought.

Darwin was the second son of society doctor Robert Waring Darwin and of Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of the Unitarian pottery industrialist Josiah Wedgwood . Darwin’s other grandfather, Erasmus Darwin , a freethinking physician and poet fashionable before the French Revolution , was author of Zoonomia; or the Laws of Organic Life (1794–96). Darwin’s mother died when he was eight, and he was cared for by his three elder sisters. The boy stood in awe of his overbearing father, whose astute medical observations taught him much about human psychology. But he hated the rote learning of Classics at the traditional Anglican Shrewsbury School, where he studied between 1818 and 1825. Science was then considered dehumanizing in English public schools, and for dabbling in chemistry Darwin was condemned by his headmaster (and nicknamed “Gas” by his schoolmates).

His father, considering the 16-year-old a wastrel interested only in game shooting, sent him to study medicine at Edinburgh University in 1825. Later in life, Darwin gave the impression that he had learned little during his two years at Edinburgh . In fact, it was a formative experience. There was no better science education in a British university. He was taught to understand the chemistry of cooling rocks on the primitive Earth and how to classify plants by the modern “natural system.” At the Edinburgh Museum he was taught to stuff birds by John Edmonstone, a freed South American slave , and to identify the rock strata and colonial flora and fauna.

More crucially, the university’s radical students exposed the teenager to the latest Continental sciences. Edinburgh attracted English Dissenters who were barred from graduating at the Anglican universities of Oxford and Cambridge , and at student societies Darwin heard freethinkers deny the Divine design of human facial anatomy and argue that animals shared all the human mental faculties. One talk, on the mind as the product of a material brain , was officially censored, for such materialism was considered subversive in the conservative decades after the French Revolution. Darwin was witnessing the social penalties of holding deviant views. As he collected sea slugs and sea pens on nearby shores, he was accompanied by Robert Edmond Grant, a radical evolutionist and disciple of the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck . An expert on sponges , Grant became Darwin’s mentor, teaching him about the growth and relationships of primitive marine invertebrates , which Grant believed held the key to unlocking the mysteries surrounding the origin of more-complex creatures. Darwin, encouraged to tackle the larger questions of life through a study of invertebrate zoology , made his own observations on the larval sea mat ( Flustra ) and announced his findings at the student societies.

The young Darwin learned much in Edinburgh’s rich intellectual environment , but not medicine: he loathed anatomy , and (pre- chloroform ) surgery sickened him. His freethinking father, shrewdly realizing that the church was a better calling for an aimless naturalist, switched him to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1828. In a complete change of environment, Darwin was now educated as an Anglican gentleman. He took his horse , indulged his drinking, shooting, and beetle-collecting passions with other squires’ sons, and managed 10th place in the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1831. Here he was shown the conservative side of botany by a young professor, the Reverend John Stevens Henslow , while that doyen of Providential design in the animal world, the Reverend Adam Sedgwick , took Darwin to Wales in 1831 on a geologic field trip.

Fired by Alexander von Humboldt ’s account of the South American jungles in his Personal Narrative of Travels , Darwin jumped at Henslow’s suggestion of a voyage to Tierra del Fuego , at the southern tip of South America , aboard a rebuilt brig , HMS Beagle . Darwin would not sail as a lowly surgeon-naturalist but as a self-financed gentleman companion to the 26-year-old captain, Robert Fitzroy , an aristocrat who feared the loneliness of command. Fitzroy’s was to be an imperial-evangelical voyage: he planned to survey coastal Patagonia to facilitate British trade and return three “savages” previously brought to England from Tierra del Fuego and Christianized. Darwin equipped himself with weapons, books (Fitzroy gave him the first volume of Principles of Geology , by Charles Lyell ), and advice on preserving carcasses from London Zoo ’s experts. The Beagle sailed from England on December 27, 1831.

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Charles Darwin: History’s most famous biologist

Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) transformed the way we understand the natural world with ideas that, in his day, were nothing short of revolutionary.

He and his fellow pioneers in the field of biology gave us insight into the fantastic diversity of life on Earth and its origins, including our own as a species.

Photograph of Charles Robert Darwin taken at his home, Down House, in 1881.

Charles Darwin is celebrated as one of the greatest British scientists who ever lived, but in his time his radical theories brought him into conflict with members of the Church of England.

Young Charles Darwin

Born in 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Darwin was fascinated by the natural world from a young age. Growing up he was an avid reader of nature books and devoted his spare time to exploring the fields and woodlands around his home, collecting plants and insects.

In 1825 Darwin enrolled in medical school at the University of Edinburgh, where he witnessed surgery on a child. Surgeries at the time would have been carried out without the use of anaesthetic or antiseptics, and fatalities were common.

Watching this procedure left Darwin so traumatised that he gave up his studies without completing the course.

During his time in Edinburgh, Darwin also paid for lessons in taxidermy from John Edmonstone , a former enslaved man from Guyana. The skills Edmonstone taught Darwin became crucial just a few years further into his career.

After his time in Scotland, Darwin went to Cambridge University to study theology.

The voyage of HMS Beagle

In no rush to take holy orders, in 1831 Darwin accepted an offer to embark on a five-year voyage aboard HMS Beagle. 

Drawing of H.M.S. Beagle from A Naturalist’s Voyage Round the World by Charles Darwin.

He was recommended by one of his Cambridge professors for the role as naturalist and companion to the ship’s captain, Robert FitzRoy.

The journey would change both his life and the trajectory of Western scientific thinking.

Darwin explored remote regions and marvelled at a world so different from the one he knew. He encountered birds with bright blue feet, sharks with T-shaped heads and giant tortoises.

On his travels Darwin collected plants, animals and fossils, and took copious field notes. These collections and records provided the evidence he needed to develop his remarkable theory.

The shells in this specimen drawer were collected by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the HMS Beagle.

Darwin returned to England in 1836. A highly methodical scholar, constantly collecting and observing, he spent many years comparing and analysing specimens before finally declaring that evolution occurs by a process of natural selection.

What is the theory of natural selection?

To this day the theory of evolution by natural selection is accepted by the scientific community as the best evidence-based explanation for the diversity and complexity of life on Earth.

The theory proposes that the ‘fittest’ individual organisms - those with the characteristics best suited to their environment - are more likely to survive and reproduce. They pass on these desirable characteristics to their offspring.

Gradually these features may become more common in a population, so species change over time. If the changes are great enough, they could produce a new species altogether.

On his travels Darwin had collected finches from many of the Galápagos Islands - off the coast of Ecuador - which helped him to formulate his idea.

Cactus finch Geospiza scandens from Charles Darwin’s Zoology of the Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle.

Some of these finches had stout beaks for eating seeds, others were insect specialists. But Darwin realised that they were all descendants of a single ancestor. As they dispersed to different islands, the birds had adapted to eat the various foods available. Natural selection had produced 13 different species of finch.

Darwin’s pigeons

From his travels on HMS Beagle, Darwin suspected that the environment might naturally manipulate species, causing them to change over time - but he couldn’t find a means to explore this effectively in the wild. 

Experimenting with artificial selection in pigeons gave him a way to study how far a species could change.

By artificially selecting features - crossing birds with particular characteristics to generate different offspring - he gathered valuable evidence for evolution by natural selection.

To illustrate his theory, Darwin bred the birds to have exaggerated features.

Original line drawing of an English Pouter pigeon from the book Variation in Animals and Plants under Domestication by Charles Darwin.

The similarity between artificial selection and natural selection is at the heart of his explanation of evolution in his revolutionary book On the Origin of Species. 

After completing his experiments, he gave all 120 of his pigeon specimens to the Museum. They are currently part of our bird collections  kept at Tring , Hertfordshire. 

Fancy breeds of rock dove  Columbia livia  donated to our collections by Charles Darwin in 1867.

A shared discovery

Darwin knew his radical ideas would be met with stiff opposition. Even after 20 years of research, he worried about how his theory of evolution would be received as it challenged widely held religious beliefs of the time. 

He delayed publishing on the topic for a great number of years while he assembled a mountain of evidence. When he learned that the young naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace had developed similar ideas, Darwin volunteered to send Wallace's ideas to a journal for immediate publication.

Letter sent to Charles Darwin by Alfred Russel Wallace.

On advice from friends, the two scientists organised a joint announcement. Their theory of evolution by natural selection was presented at the Linnean Society in London.

Both had studied the natural world extensively and made a number of observations that were critical to the development of the theory.

The following year, Darwin published the contentious but now-celebrated book, ‘On the Origin of Species’.

On the Origin of Species

Published in 1859, On the Origin of Species provoked outrage from some members of the Church of England as it implicitly contradicted the belief in divine creation.

Despite accusations of blasphemy, the book quickly became a bestseller.

Foreign language first editions of some works by Charles Darwin.

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex - which Darwin published in 1871 - fuelled even greater debate as it suggested that humans descended from apes.

The Bishop of Oxford famously asked Thomas Huxley, one of Darwin’s most enthusiastic supporters, whether it was through his grandfather or grandmother that he claimed descent from a monkey.

Despite the attacks, Darwin’s conviction in the scientific explanation that best fit the available evidence remained unshaken.

He was keen for his ideas to reach as many people as possible and for his books to be read in many different languages. Part of his success has been attributed to his conversational and approachable writing style.

On the Origin of Species was so influential that within a year it had been published in German. In Darwin's lifetime, his book was translated into German, Danish, Dutch, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Spanish and Swedish. 

Our Library has 478 editions of On the Origin of Species in 38 languages and in Braille.

Japanese translation of On the Origin of Species, Shu No Kigen, published in 1914 as a five-volume, pocket-sized edition.

Darwin and the tree of life

Charles Darwin used the concept of a tree of life in the context of the theory of evolution to illustrate that all species on Earth are related and evolved from a common ancestor.

Darwin’s first sketch of the tree of life, found in one of his notebooks from 1837. Image reproduced with kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library . 

The tips of the branches show the species that are still alive today. The tree also shows those that are now extinct. Darwin explained:

‘From the first growth of the tree, many a limb and branch has decayed and dropped off; and these fallen branches of various sizes may represent those whole orders, families, and genera which have now no living representatives, and which are known to us only in a fossil state.’

Orders, families and genera are all groups that can be used to classify organisms.

The lines on the tree show evolutionary relationships between species. For example, a recent version of the tree of life would show a line between some types of dinosaurs and the earliest birds , as scientists reason that birds evolved from a particular lineage of dinosaurs.

This means that species that are closely related are found close together stemming from the same branch.

For example, humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans are all great apes, so they all belong to the same branch of the tree of life.

Darwin’s legacy

Although Darwin’s theory of evolution has been modified over time, it remains fundamental to the study of the natural world. Darwin changed not only the way we see all organisms, but also the way we see ourselves.

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The Museum Library contains the worlds largest collection of works by and about Charles Darwin. 

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Check out our fun facts for kids that feature interesting trivia, quotes and information related to a range of famous scientists. Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who changed the way humans viewed themselves and the world around them through his amazing ideas on evolution and natural selection. Read on for interesting facts, quotes and science information about Charles Darwin. and .     Science Kids ©  |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |  Updated: Oct 9, 2023 Charles Darwin and finches I can model how different shaped beaks are adapted to suit different food sources. Lesson details Key learning points. Charles Darwin was an English scientist who studied nature. In 1831, Darwin set sail to study the plants and animals living on the coasts of South America. Darwin observed that the beak shape of finches was best suited to the food sources found on different Galapagos Islands. Darwin’s observations led him to wonder how new species developed. Darwin’s ideas about how living things adapt to suit their environments would eventually change people’s ideas. Common misconception Pupils may think that animals, such as finches with differently shaped beaks, have been able to change or adapt during their lifetime based on the conditions they live in. Explain that adaptations take many years and generations of animals to happen and it is not possible for an animal or plant to change like this during its lifetime. Charles Darwin - Charles Darwin was an English scientist who studied nature. Observations - We make observations when we look closely at something and use other senses, too. Species - Distinct types of living things are called species. Finch - A finch is a type of small bird with a short beak. Adapted - A species that is well suited to its environment has adapted to survive there. See Additional Material Content guidance Risk assessment required - equipment Supervision Adult supervision required This content is © Oak National Academy Limited ( 2024 ), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2). Starter quiz 6 questions. Additional material International Education Jobs Schools directory Resources Education Jobs Schools directory News Search KS2 Biographies - Charles Darwin Subject: English Age range: 7-11 Resource type: Unit of work Last updated 27 March 2023 Share through email Share through twitter Share through linkedin Share through facebook Share through pinterest A unit of lessons all designed for pupils to write independant biographies about Charles Darwin. Aimed at Upper Key Stage 2. Works well with the Year 6 Cornerstones Unit ‘Darwin’s Delights’ or Victorians. Tes paid licence How can I reuse this? Your rating is required to reflect your happiness. It's good to leave some feedback. Something went wrong, please try again later. This resource hasn't been reviewed yet To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch. Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource: Famous Scientists Charles Darwin Charles Darwin is often cited as the greatest biologist in history. His most famous work, On the Origin of Species , explains the theory of evolution by natural selection, providing numerous supporting examples. Darwin believed that all of life on earth had descended from a common ancestor, whose offspring could vary slightly from the previous generation. Successive generations of life took part in a struggle for existence in which the best adapted variations survived to seed new generations. Less well adapted variations became extinct. Charles Robert Darwin was born into a wealthy family on February 12, 1809 in the town of Shrewsbury, England, UK. He was the fifth child of six. Charles Darwin, aged 7 His father, Robert Darwin, was a physician. Robert Darwin had grown rich by shrewdly investing money earned from his medical practice. Charles’s mother was Susannah Wedgewood, from the famous pottery family. She died when Charles was eight years old. He then started attending an elementary school School At the age of nine, Charles was sent to Shrewsbury School, about a mile from his family home. He boarded there, often briefly returning home to keep up with family goings-on. His boarding school followed a traditional classical curriculum revolving around Ancient Greek and Latin, which Charles loathed. He was not considered to be particularly smart. His foreign language skills were poor. His schoolwork usually involved learning by heart for the next day lines of Roman or Greek literature. Although he disliked doing this, he was happy to work hard. He learned his lines thoroughly, then promptly forgot them all again as soon as class was over. He enjoyed hunting and going for long walks, observing and collecting things from the natural world. At one point he became so obsessive about hunting that his father declared: Despite his father’s uncharacteristic outburst, the young Charles Darwin was very enthusiastic about science. He was taught geometry by a private tutor, which he enjoyed, and he also enjoyed learning how complex things worked. He was captivated by a book Wonders of the World , which planted a seed in him to travel. The seed would later bloom into his famous voyage on HMS Beagle. His brother built a chemistry laboratory in the garden tool-house, and Charles helped with experiments, often late into the night. Chemistry became his favorite subject. Unfortunately, it was not part of his school’s curriculum. In fact he was reprimanded his headmaster for ‘wasting his time’ on chemistry! Edinburgh and Medical School In 1825, aged 16, Charles became a medical student at the University of Edinburgh, as his father had done 42 years earlier. His father had pleasant memories of Edinburgh, where he was taught by the great chemist Joseph Black, who discovered magnesium, carbon dioxide, and latent heat. Unlike his father, however, Charles did not enjoy medical school. He found that dissecting human bodies disgusted him, being present during surgical operations horrified him, and visiting hospital wards distressed him. Moreover, attending lectures bored him: Confident his father would give him enough money to live in comfort, he decided not to worry about passing his exams. In his second year at Edinburgh, Charles became interested in zoology, and he collected and dissected marine creatures. He also attended geology lectures, but found them incredibly boring. His exasperated father decided to halt Charles’s medical studies. He withdrew his son from Edinburgh and sent him to the University of Cambridge with the idea that his idle son would eventually become a Church of England clergyman. Cambridge and an Easy Degree Early in 1828, just before his twentieth birthday, Charles Darwin enrolled at the University of Cambridge to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree. After three easy years he received his B.A. degree with marks placing him near the top of the class. He had spent much of his time hunting, dining, drinking, and playing cards – all of which he enjoyed heartily. Ironically, given Darwin’s later work, his favorite book at university was Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity . Its author, William Paley, used the example of a watch and a watchmaker in support of his argument that the natural world had been designed by God. Each species of life is much more complex than a watch, Paley said, therefore clearly these species must have been designed by someone – and that someone was God. The Natural World During his time in Cambridge, Darwin continued to pursue his scientific interests, particularly in botany and zoology: his greatest interest by far was in collecting different species of beetle. Reading Alexander von Humboldt’s book Personal Narrative of travels 1799-1804 and John Herschel’s Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy energized Darwin. He thirsted for overseas adventures and scientific discoveries. After finishing at Cambridge, he began taking a serious interest in geology, studying rocks near his hometown of Shrewsbury and going on a two week expedition to Wales mapping rock strata. Charles Darwin’s Contributions to Science The voyage of the beagle 1831 – 1836. Darwin spent nearly five years traveling around the world on the Beagle. Near the end of summer 1831, after completing his degree, Darwin was offered a position as a naturalist on HMS Beagle, one of the British Royal Navy’s survey ships. The position had previously been offered to John Henslow, a geologist and naturalist at Cambridge, but he had turned it down and recommended Darwin. The Beagle was scheduled to make a long expedition to the South Seas. Darwin would have to pay for his place on the ship, but would be at liberty to collect specimens and send them back to the United Kingdom for his own use or profit. It was a wonderful opportunity to emulate his hero Alexander von Humboldt. Darwin was determined to grab it with both hands. His father, with some reluctance, agreed to pay for his son’s voyage. The voyage, much like the fictitious Starship Enterprise’s, was a five year mission. It followed the route shown on the map above. The conditions on the small ship were much less comfortable than those enjoyed by the Starship Enterprise’s crew! Plan of HMS Beagle The Beagle – A cramped home for a five year voyage The Voyage While sailing southward from the British Isles, the Beagle’s first stop was at the volcanic Cape Verde Islands, west of Africa. Darwin found seashells high up in cliffs there. The Beagle’s captain, who had a great interest in the natural world, helped Darwin explain the observation, giving him a copy of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology . Principles of Geology explained uniformitarian ideas in geology – the theory of gradualism, first proposed late in the previous century by James Hutton . A few years later the book’s author, Charles Lyell, would become one of Darwin’s greatest friends and supporters. The expedition continued, with Darwin writing about his experiences in each new place he visited, collecting samples of flora, fauna, and fossils, and observing rock formations. He saw a variety of unusual, unique species on the Galapagos Islands. Each separate island seemed to have its own distinct varieties of wildlife. Observations like these provoked him to write late in the voyage: Back Home Again Darwin arrived back in England in October 1836. He had kept in touch with John Henslow, sending him notes regularly about his geological work on the expedition. Henslow put these notes together into a 31 page pamphlet, which he distributed to Cambridge’s scientific community and beyond. Henslow also showed paleontologists fossils Darwin sent him, which caused more excitement. Although Darwin embarked on the voyage as an unknown recent graduate, he returned as a respected, well-known scientist. Also, he assembled a large, exciting collection of specimens that naturalists were queuing up to study and catalog. His father was relieved his prediction that Charles would disgrace the family had been proven wrong. Charles Darwin was now admired in the world of natural science, and his father agreed to continue funding his work. In fact, other people also recognized the value of Darwin’s work, and he now received a large grant from the British government to write up his observations from the Beagle’s expedition. Scientific Results from Darwin’s Voyage Darwin established that the South American continent is gradually rising from the ocean. Charles Lyell, whose geology book influenced Darwin on the voyage, arranged for Darwin to present this work to the Geological Society of London at the beginning of 1837. At the same meeting Darwin presented specimens of birds he had collected from the Galapagos Islands. Within a week, the ornithologist John Gould examined the specimens and declared the birds belonged to an entirely new group of finches. Darwin had discovered 12 new finch species and a new group of finches. Evolution by Natural Selection On his long voyage, at times mesmerized by nature’s abundance, Darwin’s thoughts had increasingly turned to the question of how different species had formed. Earlier Ideas about Evolution The concept of evolution had been hatched thousands of years before Darwin’s time . His grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, had made some striking contributions to evolutionary theory, including the idea that all life has a common origin . Darwin’s Theory In July 1837 Darwin began keeping a notebook of his thoughts and theories about the variation of plants and animals. By this time, he had completely accepted that species could evolve (or, to use Darwin’s language, transmute ). He decided he would make his investigation according to the principles of Francis Bacon – he would assemble facts before producing a theory. In October 1838 he read Thomas Malthus’s work on population, showing that populations increase until food runs out, then crash. There is a struggle for existence. Darwin said that having read Malthus: By December 1838 Darwin was mulling over how breeders improve domestic animals by selecting the animals with the best qualities. In the natural world the selection is carried out by the environment. The lifeforms best adapted to the environment survive and breed. This is natural selection. In 1842 he wrote his first paper on what came to be known as evolution by natural selection, but only for his own use. In 1845 he published thoughts, formed much earlier, about the new species of finches he discovered in the Galapagos Islands, saying he could imagine that one original species had been modified into all the different species. Darwin decided that the different species of finches on the Galapagos Islands were all descended from a single finch ancestor. If Darwin had been an ambitious scientist, he could have published a theory of evolution by natural selection in 1839, but he didn’t. He continued: gathering and weighing evidence and assessing specimens from his voyage breeding animals and plants to determine how species could be modified by artificial selection writing books and papers about a variety of topics including geology Darwin’s Hand is Forced On 18 June 1858, aged 49, Darwin opened his mail and got a terrible shock. He had been corresponding with Alfred Russel Wallace , a young, self-trained naturalist who was on an expedition in the East Indies. Wallace now asked for Darwin’s opinion of a paper he had written. The paper described the theory of evolution by natural selection – the theory Darwin had spent decades gathering evidence for, but had never published. Darwin wrote back, offering his opinion that Wallace’s paper could be published in any journal of Wallace’s choosing. Darwin also showed Wallace’s paper to his scientific friends Charles Lyell (Wallace had requested this) and Joseph Dalton Hooker. Darwin was in crisis at this time because his young son had been terribly sick, eventually dying of scarlet fever on June 28. His friends were aware that Darwin actually arrived at the theory first. They decided the joint theories of Darwin and Wallace should be read to the Linnean Society on July 1. Darwin did not attend the reading. His place was at his son’s funeral. In the event, the reading of the Darwin-Wallace paper provoked little interest. The Origin of Species Darwin’s game-changing book On the Origin of Species – often called the most important book in the history of biology – became available to the public on November 24, 1859; booksellers immediately sold all 1250 copies. Trying to avoid controversy, Darwin avoided making any claims for the origin a particular species, such as Homo sapiens . He did however, in agreement with his grandfather’s much earlier theory, write: Over the following years Darwin updated the book regularly. He eventually authored six significantly different editions. Some of the most familiar ideas of ‘Darwinism’ did not appear until the later editions: the famous phrase “survival of the fittest” appeared for the first time in the 1869 fifth edition. Remarkably, the word evolution made its first appearance in the sixth edition in 1872. In support of his theory of common ancestry, Darwin was particularly taken by the similarity of the embryos of different species. Further Work In 1868 Darwin wrote The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication . Feeling the need to offer a mechanism for heredity, and unaware that Gregor Mendel had already provided it, Darwin incorrectly proposed heredity resulted from a process called pangenesis . Many people believed that Darwin’s proposed descent of humans from apes was an attack on society’s moral foundations. During Darwin’s lifetime, there was fierce opposition to his theory. The great German pathologist Rudolf Virchow , for example, opposed Darwin from the beginning and never relented in his opposition. In fact, in 1877, Virchow said the idea that man had descended from apes was an attack on society’s moral foundations. He voiced his opinion that teaching the theory of evolution should not be permitted in Germany’s public schools. In 1872 Darwin looked at the evolution of human psychology in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals , showing there are similarities in human and animal psychology. The idea that species evolve had become accepted by most mainstream scientists by about the time the sixth edition of The Origin of Species came out in 1872. The concept of natural selection, however, was less accepted. In considering the rate at which natural selection pushed evolutionary change, Darwin was heavily influenced by his friend Charles Lyell’s championing of gradualism. It was only much later, after publication of the 1930 book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection by Ronald Fisher , that evolution by natural selection became widely accepted by mainstream scientists. Fisher unified the theory of natural selection with the heredity laws of Gregor Mendel Some Personal Details and the End Darwin’s wife Emma two years after their marriage. The couple had ten children; three died in childhood. Three of their sons, George, Francis, and Horace, became notable scientists and were elected fellows of the Royal Society. George became an astronomer, Francis a botanist, and Horace an engineer. Another son, Leonard, financially supported the publication of Ronald Fisher’s earliest work. In 1837, as he began to work hard on a multi-volume book of observations from the Beagle expedition, and simultaneously began seriously researching the transmutation of species, Darwin fell ill. He would be plagued by ill-health for the rest of his life. In 1842 he moved with his family to a country house outside London, away from the smoke and dirt. He lived a quiet life, not socializing much, concentrating on family life and writing books and scientific papers. In 1864 Darwin was awarded the Copley Medal, then the greatest honor in science. The award was for: “his important researches in geology, zoology, and botanical physiology.” Previous winners included Benjamin Franklin , Alessandro Volta , Hans Christian Oersted , Michael Faraday , Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Lyell, and Robert Bunsen . Charles Darwin died aged 73 on April 19, 1882, of heart failure at his country house. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, London, next to John Herschel whose work had inspired him at university, and near his best friend Charles Lyell, whose work had influenced him greatly. Other scientists buried in Darwin’s vicinity at Westminster Abbey include Isaac Newton, Ernest Rutherford, J. J. Thomson, and Lord Kelvin. Author of this page: The Doc Images digitally enhanced and colorized by this website. © All rights reserved. Cite this Page Please use the following MLA compliant citation: Published by FamousScientists.org Further Reading Charles Darwin Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, 2nd Edition John Murray, 1845 Charles Darwin The Autobiography of Charles Darwin John Murray, 1887 Phillip Sloan The Concept of Evolution to 1872 The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) 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Wilson | Sven Wingqvist | Sergei Winogradsky | Carl Woese | Friedrich Wöhler | Wilbur and Orville Wright | Wilhelm Wundt Chen-Ning Yang Ahmed Zewail Find out why teachers and school leaders love PlanBee 📚 Cross-Curricular Topics ✂️ Design & Technology ♻️ Education for Social Responsibility 🌍 Geography ⛪️ Religious Education 🎉 Special Days 🦸‍♀️ Special People School Curriculum FREE teaching resources Objective Checker How does it work? Charles Darwin Facts for Kids Find out all about Charles Darwin, his life and his theory of evolution, along with some fascinating facts, to help you understand the scientific contributions of this famous naturalist!    Who is Charles Darwin?  Charles Darwin was a British naturalist who was born in The Mount House, Shrewsbury on the 12th February 1809. A naturalist is someone who studies things in nature such as animals and plants and how they live. He is best known for his theory of evolution. What was Charles Darwin known for?  Charles Darwin studied the natural world over many years, taking part in expeditions to regions such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and remote islands such as the Galápagos. He spent five years travelling and gathering information. On his voyage on the HMS Beagle between 1831 and 1836, Charles Darwin collected samples of plants, animals, rocks and fossils which he took home to England to study. These observations helped scientists to learn more about the way the Earth's surface is formed and how it has changed over time.  What did Charles Darwin discover?  Upon his return from his travels, Charles Darwin began to question the origin and adaption of species and how they have changed over time. In 1859, Charles Darwin published his book ‘On the Origin of Species’ which outlined his theory of evolution. Darwin challenged the idea that God made all animals and plants on Earth. Instead, he suggested that species change over time, adapting to their environment. His theory included the idea of ‘natural selection’ or in other words ‘survival of the fittest’. This is where a variation of a species may change to suit its surroundings, adapting to make sure of its survival - however, another variation of a species may not be able to adapt as well and so the variation dies out.  How did Charles Darwin die?  For years, Charles Darwin lived with a chronic condition. It was said that he suffered for many years with symptoms such as eczema, headaches, sickness and boils. Some suggested this mystery disease could have been because of parasites picked up on his travels around the world. Others now believe Darwin may have had Crohn's disease.  On the 19th April 1882, Darwin suffered heart failure at his home, Down House in Kent. Darwin was reportedly a family man, and on his deathbed said to his wife, Emma: “I am not the least afraid of death. Remember what a good wife you have been to me. Tell all my children to remember how good they have been to me.”  He was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, UK.  Fun Facts about Charles Darwin Charles Darwin co-developed his theory of evolution with Alfred Wallace.  Charles Darwin dropped out of medical school because he couldn’t stand the sight of blood.  In 1839 Charles Darwin married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood. Although this is something that seems strange nowadays, back then it was widely accepted.  Darwin waited 20 years to publish his theory of evolution due to worries that people were not ready for his radical ideas.  He not only studied animals from around the world… he also ate them!  In 2000, Charles Darwin appeared on the back of a £10 note. It was discontinued in 2018.  Charles Darwin was a scientist, as well as being a Christian.  He was born on the 12th February 1809, the same day as Abraham Lincoln.  Charles Darwin wrote a pros and cons list on whether to marry or not.  He loved hiking!  Darwin played two games of backgammon with his wife every evening.  Very Good Very Nice - July 3, 2024 Very good very nice Charles Darwin - June 18, 2024 👍 hi - June 4, 2024 amazing! Cesar - May 16, 2024 nice Jeff Bazos - May 14, 2024 This is very useful. THANKS DARWIN. me - May 2, 2024 information was helpful Jeff - May 2, 2024 This was very useful thanks. Paige - April 18, 2024 Very helpful with lots of facts Bob - April 18, 2024 Very good very nice maisie - April 4, 2024 amazing every time Leave a comment Comments must be approved before appearing * Required fields Featured collection Free mini-scheme: wassily kandinsky. 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Thanks Kate - we hope you enjoy using the resources! Charles Darwin Facts Charles Darwin was an English scientist. He is most well known for his theory of evolution. Here are some facts about Charles Darwin: Charles Darwin’s father was a doctor and he really wanted Charles to study medicine at university. Charles started to train to be a doctor, but he was afraid of the sight of blood, and switched to studying the classics. However, Charles soon realised that his real passion was for geology (the study of the Earth and rocks) and botany (plant biology). In 1831 Darwin set sail on the HMS Beagle , a naval survey ship. Darwin was there to collect plant and animal specimens from the countries and islands the ship visited. The voyage took five years. For Charles Darwin, the most important part of the journey was the time spent in the Galapagos Islands . These islands are the home to plants and animals that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. Darwin noticed that each of the different islands was home to a different type of tortoise. When the Beagle returned to England, and Darwin began to study the specimens he had collected in more detail, he realised that the differences in finches of the Galapagos Islands followed a similar pattern to those he had observed in the tortoises. The finches from all of the islands were similar, but birds from different islands had different beaks. Darwin started to study other animals and plants, and he began to piece together his theory of natural selection which explains how populations evolve. Darwin didn’t publish his findings straight away because he knew that they would be extremely controversial and upset many people. On the Origin of Species finally came out in 1859. It was a massive talking point because it challenged the truth of the creation story found in the Bible. Today, Darwin’s theory of natural selection has been accepted (by most people) as scientific fact, and new fossil discoveries are constantly adding to our knowledge of the different stages of evolution. Darwin’s appears on UK £10 notes, and a statue of him has been placed in the main hall of London’s Natural History Museum. More than 120 species have been named after Darwin. Click here to find out some facts about other famous Victorians. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed . Amazon Affiliate Disclaimer Member Login How It Works FAQ’s & Help Y6 A Biography of Charles Darwin Pupils read about the life and scientific achievements of the scientist Charles Darwin, renowned for the publication of his book ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’ in which he described his evidence for evolution. Learning Objectives: NaG - pupils might find out about the work of palaeontologists such as Mary Anning and about how Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace developed their ideas on evolution. This resource is available in the below packages. 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Assessments Our Partners Nurturing Nature Ltd. Grow Your Own Potatoes - British Potato Council The National STEM Centre © Copyright 2024 Sigma Science Primary | All rights reserved | Resources are property of Sigma Science Primary. Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Website design by IGOO Biography: Early Life (1809-1831) Charles Darwin’s discoveries in Galapagos gave him some very important scientific ideas, however, there was a lot more to Darwin than the stern-looking man in famous paintings. In this section, we will explore Darwin’s life to see how his curiosity lead him on an incredible adventure. It was clear that Darwin was interested in nature, science and collecting from a very early age, however, Darwin could also be a bit of a handful for his father and sisters, and he really didn’t like school very much! Read on to find out more about how Darwin’s youth shaped his future adventures. Charles Robert Darwin was born at The Mount in Shrewsbury, England on 12 February 1809. Darwin’s dad, Robert Darwin (a doctor) told him that people with great minds had memories from when they were babies, therefore Darwin thought this must mean he was not very clever as his earliest memory was a visit to the beach when he was four years old. Darwin’s mother died when he was only eight years old, and his older sisters helped to raise him until he went to boarding school when he was nine – when he was older, Darwin wrote that he had been quite naughty as a young boy, and was definitely not considered to be as smart as his sister, Caroline! Darwin did not like school very much and found it boring, but he really loved nature and being outside – he enjoyed collecting plants and dead animals, and his family noticed that he liked going for walks on his own to find things that he could add to his collection. Charles Darwin as a young boy I must have been a very simple little fellow when I first went to school… Tanagra Darwini , 1840-1843 John and Elizabeth Gould University Days Darwin’s dad could see that he was not doing well at school and when he was old enough he sent him to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. Unfortunately Darwin didn’t try very hard at university because he thought his dad would just pay for him to have a good life! He found the lectures boring and said that the subject of medicine disgusted him. Luckily for Darwin, he made some friends who were interested in nature like he was, including a Professor called Robert Grant. By this time, scientists had begun to discuss the idea of evolution and Grant talked about these ideas with Darwin. Darwin’s own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, had written a book called  Zoönomia  in 1794, but Darwin said that the problem was that nobody had any evidence to back up their ideas. When Darwin’s dad found out that his son wasn’t enjoying University any more than he had enjoyed school, he asked him to study to become a clergyman. Darwin asked for some time to think about this because really he would have preferred to not work at all, however, after some time to think, he decided he would do as his dad asked and would go to the University of Cambridge to become a clergyman. It might not be much of a surprise that Darwin did not like studying at Cambridge either! Instead of studying he made friends with people who loved going shooting, and they would spend a lot of time at parties. However, while he was at Cambridge, Darwin met a Professor called John Henslow who was an expert on botany, and Darwin really like his lectures. The pair became friends, and Henslow became a mentor to Darwin, taking him on trips to see rare plants and animals. After leaving Cambridge, Darwin went on a short geological tour in North Wales, and when he got back he received a letter from Henslow telling him that a captain called Robert Fitzroy was looking for a man to go on a voyage with him, to keep him company and as an unpaid naturalist for the journey. Unfortunately Darwin’s dad did not want him to go on the voyage and told him that he would only consider it if Darwin could find one other man who thought it was a good idea for him to go. Luckily Darwin’s uncle, Josiah Wedgwood II , convinced Darwin’s dad to let him go on the voyage aboard HMS Beagle. I heard that I had run a very narrow risk of being rejected [by Fitzroy], on account of the shape of my nose! … He doubted whether anyone with my nose could possess sufficient energy and determination for the voyage. But I think he was afterwards well-satisfied that my nose had spoken falsely. What happened when Darwin set sail on board the HMS Beagle? Click next to discover the next chapter of Darwin’s story… 376 COMMENTS Charles Darwin Charles Darwin - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help Charles Darwin facts for kids Charles Darwin Facts for Kids Charles Darwin and the Mystery of Life! Charles Darwin and the Mystery of Life! Charles Darwin Charles Darwin - National Geographic Society ... Charles Darwin Charles Darwin The theory of evolution by natural selection that was developed by Charles Darwin revolutionized the study of living things. In his Origin of Species (1859) he provided a scientific explanation of how the diverse species of plants and animals have descended over time from common ancestors. His theory remains central to the foundations of modern ... Charles Darwin Primary Resource Charles Darwin Primary Resource Charles Darwin Charles Darwin | Biography, Education, Books, Theory of ... Charles Darwin KS2 Lesson Plan, Biography and Comprehension Questions Charles Darwin KS2 lesson plan, biography and comprehension questions. There is a PDF of all of the files and an editable version of each file (you just need to delete the watermark logo from each of the editable files). You can find more KS2 Science lesson plans, worksheets and teaching resources on the Save Teachers' Sundays website. ... Charles Darwin KS2 Biography PowerPoint Charles Darwin Biography PowerPoint PDF Deepening Understanding UKS2 Non-fiction Text Biography of Charles 12th February 1809 in Shrewsbury, England, Charles Darwin was born into a wealthy famil. . He was descended from a long line of brilliant minds, many of whom had been scientists. Being part of a proud an. successful family, his father Dr R. W. Darwin had a highly-respected job as a physician. Darwin and his siblings (he was the second youngest ... Charles Darwin: History's most famous biologist Charles Darwin: History's most famous biologist Charles Darwin Video Charles Darwin Biography. Learn how Charles Darwin became one of the most influential scientists of all time with this short biographical video. Darwin's tale is a fascinating one, involving a unique expedition on the HMS Beagle to the Galapagos Islands. Darwin studied the variations found in related species and slowly formed unique theories ... Charles Darwin Charles Darwin - Wikipedia ... Charles Darwin Charles Darwin Facts Charles Darwin was born in England on the 12th of February 1809, he died on the 19th of April 1882. He is most famous for his work on natural selection, the idea that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors. This process involves favorable traits becoming more common in successive generations of living things while at ... Charles Darwin and finches In 1831, Darwin set sail to study the plants and animals living on the coasts of South America. Darwin observed that the beak shape of finches was best suited to the food sources found on different Galapagos Islands. Darwin's observations led him to wonder how new species developed. Darwin's ideas about how living things adapt to suit their ... KS2 Biographies A unit of lessons all designed for pupils to write independant biographies about Charles Darwin. Aimed at Upper Key Stage 2. Works well with the Year 6 Cornerstones . International; Resources; Education Jobs; Schools directory ... KS2 Biographies - Charles Darwin. Subject: English. Age range: 7-11. Resource type: Unit of work. Sam's Primary ... Charles Darwin Lived 1809 - 1882. Charles Darwin is often cited as the greatest biologist in history. His most famous work, On the Origin of Species, explains the theory of evolution by natural selection, providing numerous supporting examples. Darwin believed that all of life on earth had descended from a common ancestor, whose offspring could vary slightly Charles Darwin Facts for Kids Charles Darwin Facts for Kids Charles Darwin Facts James Famous People, The Victorians. Charles Darwin was an English scientist. He is most well known for his theory of evolution. Here are some facts about Charles Darwin: Charles Darwin's father was a doctor and he really wanted Charles to study medicine at university. Charles started to train to be a doctor, but he was afraid of the sight of ... Y6 A Biography of Charles Darwin Y6 A Biography of Charles Darwin. Pupils read about the life and scientific achievements of the scientist Charles Darwin, renowned for the publication of his book 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection' in which he described his evidence for evolution. ... Sigma Science KS1 & KS2 Complete. Sigma Science - Year 1. Animals ... Darwin's Biography (Early Life) Darwin's Biography (Early Life) assignment essay homework paper phd report resume review speech thesis