Evolution $1.69 AUD
Category: Science & Nature
In the 1830s, a young naturalist called Charles Darwin set out as part of a survey expedition on the HMS Beagle. The Beagle circumnavigated the Earth, taking five years and carrying out detailed surveys around the southern coast of South America. Darwin collected fossils and different species of plants and animals, and made many detailed observations which caused him to come up with an absolutely crazy idea which changed the world.
Darwin saw that if a species could reproduce to its full capacity, the population would increase uncontrollably – we’d be totally overrun by bunnies and weevils and cockatoos and orchids. But Darwin then observed that populations of all species tended to remain about the same each year, not really getting any smaller or larger. He also knew that environmental resources – food, water, shelter – were limited. Finally, Darwin noticed that no two creatures in any species were exactly alike, and that many of the variations between members of a species could be passed down to their offspring.
