Darwin, Charles (1809-1882)

Charles Robert Darwin, a British biologist, is at the root of the theory of evolution. From his journeys to the Galapagos Islands, Darwin brought back numerous fossil and living animal specimens. He noticed particularly that each island possessed its own specific types of turtle and bird, whose appearance and diet differed in small ways, but which were in addition a lot alike. He thus developed his theory according to which, for example, each sort of turtle originates from the same species, each having adapted in a different way to life on the different islands. In doing this, he abandoned the idea of the divine creation of the species.