Life Path of Charles Robert Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin, born February 12, 1809, in Shropshire, England, at the same time as Abraham Lincoln and is best known for his scientific theory of evolution by natural selection, an example of one of his accomplishments. This scientific theory, that took 20 years to be released to the public, is an example of human's drastic intellectual revolution. He also successfully circumnavigated the globe with Robert FitzRoy. In this five year voyage around the world, Darwin made several important discoveries including finding gigantic fossils of extinct animals and forming his famous theory of evolution. In 1842, Darwin published his answer to the mystery of how coral reefs and atolls are formed.

The process of natural selection is composed of 4 parts;variation, inheritance, population growth and differential survival. Variation states that in a population, organisms have their own variation in how they look and in how they act. Inheritance states that certain genetic traits are heritable and others are heavily influenced by environmental factors. Heritable traits are passed down regularly from parent to offspring. Population growth each year leads to conflict between the population as they produce more offsprings than resources can supply. Differential survival states that individuals possessing suitable traits to survive the struggle for food, water and shelter will contribute more offsprings. In order for this theory to work and essentially evolve the organism, the specific trait must have heritable variation and the organism must acquire an advantage in survival because of it.

Darwin was born into a successful family. The fifth of six children of Robert Darwin, a society doctor and financier, and Susannah Darwin, daughter to Josiah Wedgwood and obviously part of the Wedgwood family. Charles was not the best student and was confused on what he wanted to study. He decided to become a clergy and transferred to Cambridge University to study geology. He became friends with two Cambridge professors, Adam Sedgwick, a geologist, and John Henslow, botanist. As Robert Fitzroy was setting up the circumnavigation of the globe, he asked Henslow to recommend him a naturalist for the trip. This lead to Darwin going on a 5 year journey around the world where he would write his theory of evolution and discover various extinct animals. While exploring the world, he also came up with his response to the mystery of how coral reefs are made.

The structure and distribution of coral reefs. A book by Charles Darwin describing how he came up with his theory and what his theory is. Coral reefs start to form when coral larvae that is just floating around attaches to underwater rocks or the underwater edges of an island. Darwin theorized that tropical sea corals will form fringing reefs below sea level. If the sea level is being raised, the coral will die and turn white. If the coastline tline is stable and the sea level doesn't fluctuate, then the coral will grow and become a barrier reef. If the coastline is decreasing, the coral might keep the pace of moving down but will eventually turn into a circular atoll. Circular atoll is a ring shaped coral reef that circles around a lagoon.

Charles Darwin is a famous geologist and is known for his many scientific contributions and discoveries. Darwin died at his house with his family on April 19,1882 in London. His theories were supported with scientific evidence on DNA samples decades

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