Charles+Darwin+and+the+Theory+of+Evolution

[[image:rotating gif.gif width="43" height="43"]]**For more on Charles Darwin, see United States History II.10 and Grade 7.1.**

 * [[image:Screen Shot 2016-01-04 at 11.35.30 AM.png link="@http://darwin-online.org.uk/darwin.html"]]Charles Darwin Biography** from Darwin Online

Charles Darwin spent 5 years traveling the world on the H.M.S. Beagle collecting plant and animal specimens, as well as recording geological observations.

His extensive collection of evidence led to his Theory of Evolution, which states that as time wears on, generations of living things adapt to their surroundings.
 * The main aspect of Darwin’s theory is his idea called **natural selection**: living things that are more adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce.

Concise explanations of the concepts of evolution from UC Berkeley.

Charles Darwin: Evolution and the Story of Our Species from BBC

Darwin: A Naturalist Voyage around the World

Thomas Huxley/Samuel Wilberforce Debate on YouTube



The Galapagpos

 * Explore the Galapagos from PBS (with an interactive map)**

Click here for an article from Ted Blog about life on the Galapagos islands and people.

A Brief History of the Galapagos from Cornell University

Darwin's Field Nots on the Galapagos

Who Wants to Live for a Million Years? an online natural selection game

**Darwin's Theories and the History of Life on Earth**

 * Using Darwin’s theory, the history of life has changed very dramatically since the living things on the earth appeared billions of years ago.
 * In the beginning, oxygen-producing organisms soon formed and this greatly added to the amount of oxygen present in the atmosphere.
 * The oxygen that was produced helped to create the ozone layer, which rose above the atmosphere and helped block the Earth from ultraviolet radiation.
 * Earth’s temperature began to fall because the ozone layer helped to cool it. With methane and carbon dioxide slowly leaving the atmosphere, many organisms began to die off or change to survive.
 * Multicellular organisms developed, and, shielded from a mass extinction that happened about 1 billion years ago, the multicellular organisms began to form into the first invertebrates.
 * Plants started to grow on the land, and plant-eaters evolved and multiplied with the source of food.
 * Soon, vertebrates, or animals with bones, began to develop, and life forms on Earth continued to grow in number rand diversity, including many reptiles, such as dinosaurs and crocodiles, as well as plants, such as ferns.