Biology Presentation
Jason Smith
May 8, 2014
Charles Darwin The theory of Evolution
Biography
Born: Charles Robert Darwin
February 12, 1809
Shrewsbury, Shropshire, United Kingdom
Studied: University of Edinburgh Medical School (medicine)
University of Cambridge (Bachelor of Arts Degree) professional institution:
Geological Society of London
Known For: The Voyage of the Beagle
On the Origin of Species evolution by natural selection, common descent
In the Beginning
He got his diploma from the boarding school known as The Angelical Shrewsbury school.
In 1825 he began an apprentice ship as a doctor, helping his father treat the poor of Shropshire, before going to the University of Edinburgh Medical School. And at the time it was considered the best medical school in the UK.
In his second year he joined the Plinian Society, a student natural history group whose debates strayed into radical materialism. He also assisted Robert Edmond Grant's investigations of the anatomy and life cycle of marine invertebrates.
In 1825 he went to Christ's College, Cambridge University, for a Bachelor of Arts degree.
The Voyage of the Beagle
In 1831 he received a letter asking if he wanted to join an expedition to chart the coastline of South America aboard the ship HMS Beagle with captain Robert FitzRoy. The expedition was suppose to last two years but ended up lasting five years. However, It ended up being one of the greatest expeditions that helped change the way we look and study animals and nature. After delays, the voyage began on December 27,1831. Darwin spent most of that time on land investigating geology and making natural history collections, all while the Beagle surveyed and charted the coasts. He kept careful notes of his observations and theoretical speculations, and at intervals during the voyage his specimens were sent to Cambridge together with letters including a copy of his journals for his family. He had some expertise in geology, including beetle collecting and dissecting marine invertebrates but in other areas he was a less experienced. On their first stop ashore at St. Jago, Darwin found that a white band high in the volcanic rock cliffs included seashells. Captain FitzRoy had given him the first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology which set out uniformitarian concepts of land slowly rising or falling over immense periods, and Darwin saw things Lyell's way. When they reached Brazil he was very delighted by the tropical rainforest. And further south he saw stepped plains and raised beaches showing a series of elevations. He also read Lyell's second volume and accepted its view of “Centres of
