Charles Darwin was the author of the theory of evolution by natural selection. The idea of evolution is not original of Darwin, but he proposed two strong ideas that follow effective nowadays: natural selection and descent community. He was also the first that obtained the generalized acceptation of the evolution fact.

Darwin was born in 1809 at Shrewsbury (England). In 1831 he served as unpayed naturalist in the Beagle, a ship that travelled around the world for five years. In this trip Darwin made many interesting observations, biological and geological. Specially important was its stay in the Galápagos islands, where he was convinced of the evolution of the species.

In England, many years later, Darwin conceived the natural selection as motor of the evolution. Convinced that his theory could generate controversy, in 1856 Darwin began to accumulate tests and arguments to its favor. In 1858 a young naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace, wrote a letter to Darwin that contained almost the some ideas that Darwin had also conceived. As a solution, the letter of Wallace and a paper of Darwin where read at the Linnaean Society, anouncing the evolution theory. In 1859 Darwin published an 'abstract' called The origin of species. This is a book that has changed the world.

In 1871 Darwin publised his Descent of Man, where applies to the human kind the some ideas used in the Origin of species. Darwin died in 1882, but his theory, reformulated in the XX century as Neodarwinism, continues being the favourite by most of the biologists to explain the evolution fact.

This Darwin picture has been made by Sergi Quiñones Oliva (Othello).

• Lucidcafé.
• Robert A. Hatch Page.
• AboutDarwin.com.