Charles Darwin’s Voyage on the H.M.S.

Beagle
On December 27, 1831, Charles Darwin left on a five-year scientific voyage
around the world on a ship called the H.M.S. Beagle which resulted in his book
describing his revolutionary new theory of natural selection. Throughout Darwin’s
journey, he came across a multitude exotic plants and animals and challenged him to
consider scientific evidences in new ways. The H.M.S. Beagle is remembered today
because of its history with Charles Darwin. The vessel used to be a warship carrying
cannons and sailed in 1826 to explore certain parts of South America.
History and Summary of On The Origin of Species Through Natural Selection
The groundbreaking work by Charles Darwin was published in England. He was
influenced by the work of a French naturalist Jean Baptiste de Lamarck and the English
economist Thomas Malthus and collected the evidences for his theory on his five-year
voyage on H.M.S. Beagle in the 1930s. The were able to visit such diverse places and
acquired the knowledge of the flora, fauna, and geology of any lands.
Darwin formulated the theory of natural selection by 1844, but he was hesitant to
present his thesis to the public because it contradicts the biblical account of creation.
British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace published a summarized version of Drawing
theory. Darwin and Wallace conducted a joint lecture on evolution in July 1858. Later
on, Darwin prepared “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” for
publication on November 24, 1859 and immediately sold out. Most naturalists and
scientists immediately embraced the theory that solved the loop holes of biological
science, but orthodox Christians condemned his work as heresy.
The theory is based on the concept of variation. It explains how certain species
evolved through time and gradually diverged and, it also argues that traits and
adaptations vary from one specie to another. Variation of organisms are visible in the
natural world, both within domesticated species and within species around the whole
natural world. Heredity is the mechanism that perpetuates variations. Charles Darwin
argues that traits are passed from parents to offspring. He also hypothesized that the
variations we see within species are related to the more distinct variations seen across
different species. The theory of evolution explains how variations cause the origin of
species.
Natural selection is Darwin’s key component of the theory, as is explains the
connection and relationship between variation and the evolution of every species.
Darwin argues that limits of geography and natural resources checks the possibility of
infinite growth of population sizes, which will not give an infinite number of beings to
survive. Species engage or faces a “struggle of existence” which is caused by the result
of limited food, water, and shelter that leads to competition for survival. Darwin also
explains that organism exhibits “advantageous variations”, variations that enables them
to adapt well to their environment and surroundings better than other organisms and are
more likely to survive. Natural selection allow those “adaptable” species to survive and
prosper in their environment, while those “not adaptable” will be defeated in the struggle
for existence and become extinct.
The concept “descent with modification” is simply passing traits from parent to
offspring, and is one of the fundamental elements behind Darwin’s theory of evolution
and that the process is known as heredity. Species will continuously give birth to
offspring that carry variations and traits, some of it are advantageous variations and
some are not. A these advantageous variations perpetuate through successive
generations of species, species that carries these advantageous will diverge from their
original variations, and becomes a species of their own.
Darwin also explained that geographical isolation separates organisms from
mixing genes with their own species and restricts migration on species because of
natural barriers such as oceans and mountain ranges and those species who manages
to do so shapes the evolution of species in those areas. This explains that geographical
isolation accounts for the plethora of unique species on isolated areas and also islands,
as well as wider distributions of species across continents.
The prevailing view of independent creation of species and the claims of religion
and science was challenged by Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin’s theory was
attempted to invalidated by some naturalist because of its controversial nature while the
theory left room for religious theology. However, Darwin’s theory of natural selections
has stood straight the test in scientific explanations, and remained the leading scientific
explanation for the origin of species.