by PoolBoy

Created on: July 28, 2010   Last Updated: July 30, 2010

Although Charles Darwin was the first to conceive the idea of natural selection and evolution, he was not the first to have thoughts and questions about the multitude of life.  The earliest of philosophers had their thoughts on biological life surrounded by creationism and the theory of a divine plan. Darwin's Theory of evolution and natural selection was both radical and daring; he would undoubtedly need empirical proof for support.

The Theory

Charles Darwin was the first to introduce the idea that all organisms may stem from common ancestry.   He called this process natural selection.  He did not seek to answer the question of creation, but simply explain a possible system for this diversity.  Natural selection and evolution is the process in which organisms develop characteristics and these characteristics become more common if it is favorable for survival in a given environment.  Over time, the desirable characteristic becomes pronounced within a given species because it provides a substantial advantage to the organisms that possess it.  After thousands of generations the characteristic is so pronounced that it has its own species classification.  Darwin theorized that organisms all stem from a few common ancestors.  Natural selection based on each organism's given environment is responsible for the diversity of life that is visible today.

 A new species is created when a trait becomes beneficial enough to species reproduction that it is producing more offspring than its relative.  A new species can also be created due to development of different traits based on isolation and separate environments.  The traits develop to cater to each environment which turns one species into two or more.

The Quest

In order to prove and expand his theory of natural selection, it was important for Darwin to work in the field and explore the possibilities of life, as daunting a task at that must have seemed.  Darwin's most famous exploration is easily the Galapagos Islands and his observation of the organisms he found there.  Located right on the equator, this set of islands had never been explored and were relatively new islands which had only been formed about 5 million years ago.  The isolation of these islands and their relatively recent formation is significant, because it creates the opportunity to observe a standalone habitat.  Additionally, because each of these islands is isolated from

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