Scientist who originated the theory of evolution knew learning also happens outside school

May 04, 2008 04:30 AM
Siva Vijenthira
Starship Special

In 1859, Charles Darwin published a book called The Origin of Species, describing how all the different types of animals and plants (and other kinds of life) evolved over millions of years from a single common ancestor. He called this process "natural selection."

For example, long ago, giraffes with long necks didn't exist. Their ancestors had short necks. But if one of those animals was born with a slightly longer neck than the others, it would be able to reach slightly higher leaves, eat more, and survive better. It would be healthy enough to have babies, and then its babies might also be born with slightly longer necks, and their babies, too.

That's how, over generations and generations, giraffes became a separate species with longer necks than other animals around them.

Evolution through natural selection was an amazing idea to people who read Darwin's book in 1859. Bookstores were sold out in just one day. Back then, most people thought the world never changed and all the animals, plants, and other kinds of life had always been here and had always looked the way we do now.

People also believed that all the mountains, rivers and oceans had always been the way we see them now.

But some, like Darwin, were beginning to realize that the whole world is always changing.

Darwin did not come up with his ideas about evolution while he was in school.

In fact, when he went away to boarding school, he wrote letters home about how "idle" he had been, and his father and sisters worried that he would never settle down and get a real job.

Instead, Darwin read scientific books and explored. Sometimes he would spend the whole day in the woods, studying birds and insects.

When Darwin was 22, he was invited to travel by ship to South America. It ended up being a five-year trip, and each time the ship stopped, Darwin hiked deep into new and interesting lands and saw creatures he had never dreamed of.

This trip was what made Darwin realize that the world was changing, and when he got home, he spent a lot of time figuring out how to explain why.

You can learn more about Darwin and how natural selection works at the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto. The exhibit will be open until Aug. 4 and includes specimens of animals Darwin saw, like the blue-footed booby, as well as live tortoises and iguanas he might have seen and life-size models of animal fossils he found. More on ROM exhibit: http://tinyurl.com/2tpuhg