Charles Darwin Facts
Charles Darwin Facts
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| Interesting Charles Darwin Facts: |
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| Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, the son of Robert Darwin and Susannah Darwin. |
| His mother died in 1817 when Darwin was eight-years-old, mostly likely due to complications of stomach cancer. |
| Darwin was a very free thinker and loved learning everything he could. He finally got to go to school when he was seven-years-old. |
| In 1825 he spent his summer as an apprentice doctor to his father, but found lectures boring and surgery upsetting so he neglected his studies. He later learned taxidermy from a freed slave. |
| Darwin later became interested in botany, but his father did not like this; his father wanted him to be a doctor. |
| On December 27, 1831, Darwin went on an expedition to map the coastline of South Africa. The expedition lasted for almost 5 years. |
| While on this trip, Darwin discovered fossils of extinct animals. |
| By the time Darwin returned from this expedition, he had become very famous amongst scientists. |
| On September 20, 1837, Darwin became very sick and doctors urged him to quit working and rest in the country for a few weeks. |
| He went back home to his family but they had too many questions about his adventures to let him rest. |
| He experienced many periods of time where he became very ill and had many health problems. This usually occurred during times of stress. |
| Darwin later decided to marry his cousin Emma Wedgewood who was nine months older than him. |
| He created the theory of natural selection which is the gradual way that heritable traits become biological traits. |
| Darwin established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors. |
| He introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. |
| Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history. His scientific contributions have helped us get where we are today. |
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