Charles Darwin
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For other people named Charles Darwin, see Charles Darwin (disambiguation).

Charles Darwin

Darwin, aged 45 in 1854, by then working towards publication of On the Origin of Species
Born Charles Robert Darwin
12 February 1809
The Mount, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, United Kingdom
Died 19 April 1882 (aged 73)
Down House, Downe, Kent, United Kingdom
Residence England
Citizenship British
Nationality British
Fields Naturalist
Institutions tertiary education:
University of Edinburgh (medicine)
University of Cambridge (ordinary Bachelor of Arts) professional institution:
Geological Society of London
Academic advisors John Stevens Henslow
Adam Sedgwick
Known for The Voyage of the Beagle
On the Origin of Species evolution by natural selection, common descent
Influences Alexander von Humboldt
John Herschel
Charles Lyell
Influenced Joseph Dalton Hooker
Thomas Henry Huxley
George Romanes
Ernst Haeckel
Sir John Lubbock
Notable awards Royal Medal (1853)
Wollaston Medal (1859)
Copley Medal (1864)
Spouse Emma Darwin (married 1839)
Signature

Charles Robert Darwin, FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist.[I] He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors,[1] and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.[2]
Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species.[3][4] By the 1870s the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favoured competing explanations and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution.[5][6] In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.[7][8]
Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates. Studies at the University of Cambridge encouraged his passion for natural science.[9] His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell's uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author.[10]
Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations and in 1838 conceived his theory of natural selection.[11] Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority.[12] He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories.[13] Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature.[5] In 1871 he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.[14]
In recognition of Darwin's pre-eminence as a scientist, he was honoured with a major ceremonial funeral and buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.[15] Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.[16][17]