D arwin, C harles R.

Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809–April 19, 1882) was a British naturalist and geologist whose 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection provided a seminal foundation for modern evolutionary theory. Darwin was from a wealthy family and was well educated. Many of his published revelations stemmed from a five‐year round‐the‐world voyage (1831–36), which he enjoyed as a young man on the HMS Beagle . During the voyage, Darwin collected and shipped home many scientific specimens, including the bodies of the birds (finches) he famously used to illustrate the concept of natural selection. While traveling, Darwin took copious notes and formulated ideas about the natural, as opposed to miraculous, origins of life and about the nature of the evolutionary processes that shaped different organisms through time. The Origin of Species generated international excitement among naturalists, the clergy, and the public. Darwin's theory was eventually combined with Gregor Mendel's discovery of the laws of genetics (unknown to Darwin) into a comprehensive theory that forms the backbone for contemporary evolutionary biology.