Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle

Meet Charles Darwin

• Lackadaisical student

• Lover of nature• Medical school

drop-out

The Voyage of the Beagle

What did he see?

Remains of marine organisms in uniform layers at high

elevations

Bones of mammals that no longer existed

Variation on neighboring islands

Geologic Activity

A Terrible, Destabilizing Sense of Wonder

• Darwin was both a biologist and a geologist on this trip

• Geology dominated his thoughts….land sinking, mountains rising…

• Slow changes to the Earth• Geology was a dynamic thing

When he returned, he collaborated with other

scientists

“I think…”

A Dangerous Idea

Finally

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms

or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according

to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful

have been, and are being, evolved.”