Chapter 95 Darwin, founder of the theory of evolution

One day in 1828, in a forest outside London, a college student was wandering around an old tree.Suddenly, he found insects wriggling under the bark that was about to fall off, so he hurriedly peeled off the bark and found two strange beetles crawling forward rapidly.The college student immediately grabbed them in his hands and watched them excitedly. At this moment, another beetle jumped out of the bark. The college student was caught off guard, and quickly hid the beetle in his mouth, and stretched out his hand to catch the third beetle.Looking at these strange beetles, college students really couldn't put them down. They just admired the beetles in their hands proudly and forgot about the one in their mouths.

The beetle in its mouth couldn't take it anymore, so it released a burst of pungent poison, which stung the college student's tongue numb and painful.Only then did he think of the beetle in his mouth, opened his mouth and spat it into his hand, and then, regardless of the pain in his mouth, he triumphantly walked towards Cambridge University in the city. The college student was Charles Darwin.Later, people named the beetle "Darwin" in memory of him. Darwin was born in England in 1809. His grandfather and father were both famous doctors.He has been lively and active since he was a child, and he likes to collect insects, especially hunting and traveling on horseback. At the age of 16, his father sent Darwin to study medicine at the University of Essieburg in order to allow him to inherit his ancestral business in the future.But he is not interested in medicine. He often goes to the beach to learn from people to collect biological specimens, dissect, classify and make observation records on animals. At the age of 19, Darwin entered Cambridge University to study theology.During this time, he made some friends.From them, he learned how to excavate and identify geological and mineral specimens, etc., which laid the foundation for his future research in natural science.

At the age of 22, recommended by a friend, Darwin boarded the expedition ship "Beagle" as a naturalist, and carried out a five-year scientific investigation with the ship.At that time, Darwin still believed that living things were created by God.Everywhere he went, Darwin carefully inspected the local animal and plant resources.Many examples aroused his thinking and made him doubt the "God Creation Theory". In South America, Darwin discovered fossils of ancient armadillos.They are very similar to modern armadillos, but different.Does this mean that modern animals developed from ancient animals?

On the Galapagos Islands, Darwin discovered that the ground finches on different islands here have their own characteristics.This phenomenon led Darwin to think that species might be constantly changing. What we have seen and heard everywhere shows that with the passage of time, living things are gradually evolving.However, at that time Darwin could not explain the cause of biological evolution.After returning from the expedition, Darwin began to study this problem. Darwin patiently gathered information and evidence.He interviewed farmers, seed supply store owners, and livestock and poultry breeders.He also raised pigeons himself and observed the variation of domestic pigeons under artificial breeding.After a lot of observation and research, Darwin finally succeeded in explaining the reasons for biological evolution with the theory of natural selection, and published this great work in 1859, which aroused great repercussions.Darwin's theory of evolution was praised by Engels as one of the three major discoveries of natural science in the 19th century.

Darwin was a man who climbed steep mountain roads without fear of toil.In the 20 years since its publication, he has never interrupted his scientific work. In 1876, he wrote the book "Effects of Cross-fertilization and Self-fertilization in the Plant Kingdom", which is the result of long-term and extensive experiments.The cross-fertilization proposed in the book is generally a favorable conclusion and has been widely used in agricultural breeding.In his later years, Darwin had a serious heart attack, but he still insisted on scientific work.Just two days before his death, he was still seriously ill to record the experiment.