Charles+Darwin+09

__Charles Darwin__

Charles Darwin was a naturalist.
 * Occupation**

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. His mother died when he was 8 years old. He was brought up by his three older sisters. Since he wasn't showing himself to be an oustanding student, his father believed that he would be a disgrace to the family.
 * Birth**

Darwin died in 1882 at the age of 73.​ In the last few years of his life Darwin became too weak to work. He suffered from heart problems that eventually killed him.
 * Death**

Charles Darwin started college at the age of 16 and spent his first years of college studying medicine, but after seeing an operation done on a child he gave it up. Then he studied to be a minister. He received a bachelor's degree in 1831. He became restless for adventure while he was in school and was thrilled, in Dec. of 1831, to be offerd a job on the Beagle, a ship destined to sail around the world. The captain of the Beagle was Robert FitzRoy. The Beagle was Darwin's laboratory for some of the most important years of his life. He collected thousands of samples and shipped them back to England. Upon arriving back in England after his long 5-year journey, he was known for his trunkloads of specimens. For years after returning from his voyage, he sorted through the piles of samples and notes and finally made sense of them all.
 * Career**

//The Voyage of The Beagle// Charles Darwin is known for explaining evolution through natural selection. Natural selection is also called "the survival of the fittest" which means that the stronger, faster, and smarter plants and animals survive and reproduce more. When he was on the Galapagos Islands, he saw many variations of plants and animals. Before this, people thought these were different species of plants and animals but he saw them as variations of the same species. The variations that were helpful for a plant or animal to survive allowed them to reproduce more. For example, giraffes with longer necks were able to reach higher leaves than the other giraffes so they lived longer because they could get more food. Since they lived longer, they also reproduced more. They then passed down the trait of longer necks to their babies and eventually, more giraffes had long necks.
 * In 1836, Darwin returned to England from his 5-year voyage on the Beagle.
 * In1838, Darwin reluctantly became the Secretary of the Geological Society in London.
 * In 1839, he was admitted into the prestigious Royal Society.
 * He wrote books on coral reefs, volcanic islands, barnacles, and the geology of South America.
 * In 1859, he published //On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.//
 * Known for...**

He spent 20 years developing his theory and experimenting on it. When he finally brought it into the public, it caused a huge outrage. There were two groups of people that reacted to his book, //On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection//. One group was the scientists who were amazed that such a simple answer wasn't discovered earlier. Then there was the religious leaders that thought that his theory was absurd because they believed that God created all plants and animals just as they were right then.


 * Interesting Facts**
 * He called himself a born naturalist and loved to collect shells,rocks and flowers.
 * He loved to hunt birds throughout his life and kept detailed logs of the birds he shot.
 * He went to two different colleges: Medical school and Theology school.
 * He had 10 children.
 * Later in his life, after suffering from health issues for a long period, Darwin was finally diagnosed with heart disease and spent the last 10 years of his life fighting heart problems.
 * When Darwin died, he was buried in Westminster Abbey next to Isaac Newton.

__Print__ Bowler, Peter J. //Charles Darwin: The Man and His Influence//. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print. Edward ,Evans J. //Charles Darwin Revolutionary Biologist//. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company,1993. Print. __Database__ "Darwin, Charles." Compton's by Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 22 Sept. 2009 < [|http://school.eb.] [|com] [|/all/comptons/article-9273921]>. "Darwin, Charles." Online Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 22 Sept. 2009 < [] >.
 * Citations**