It's November 24th, Evolution Day. On this day in 1859, Charles Darwin published 📚 "On the Origin of Species." This book shocked English Victorian society by suggesting that humans and animals shared a common ancestry – that species evolve over the course of generations through the process of natural selection.
The catalyst for Darwin's illuminating theory was his 1831-1836 round-the-world voyage on the HMS Beagle. Puzzled by much of what he had seen during the voyage –in particular, fossil bones of huge, extinct mammals in Patagonia and finches and tortoises that differed from island to island in the Galapagos – an idea percolated in his mind for two years before emerging as the Theory of Evolution.
Darwin theorized that individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and reproduce. Conversely, individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. This slow, but relentless process of natural selection causes populations to change in order to adapt to their environments. These variations accumulate over time to form new species.
After 20 more years of research, Darwin published his book. The body of evidence he laid out didn’t take long to convince his fellow scientists, but took 50 years for the general public to fully accept – even after he laid out more evidence in his 1871 book, "The Descent of Man.” Of course, there are still fringe elements out there today who refuse to believe.
At the time of its publication, "On the Origin of Species" appealed to the world's rising class of sophisticated scientists. By the time of Darwin's death in 1882, evolutionary discourse had spread throughout science, literature, and politics. He was accorded the ultimate British accolade of burial in Westminster Abbey, near fellow superstar scientist Sir Isaac Newton. ☮️ R.I.P., Charles… Jamiese of Pixoplanet
