Charles Darwin's Revolution
1859 AD
1859 1859
91.00W00.30S
SCI

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS
	Charles Darwin was a little unsure.  Was he ready to publish his findings?  Twenty-two years earlier, in 1836, he had returned to England with the germ of a radical new idea about the origin of life.
	On the Galapagos Islands near South America, Darwin had seen animals that were related -- but different. Perhaps, he thought, the mechanism that caused these slight variations could also cause major changes in plant and animal life.  He theorized that in the battle to live, plants and animals most adapted to their environment would survive and pass on the survival traits to their offspring.  Eons of little adaptations, he thought, could result in completely different species.
	His evidence clearly showed that small evolutionary changes do occur, but his evidence for big changes was more speculative.  But on the other hand, Darwin knew other biologists were working on the same idea, so he finally sat down and wrote "The Origin of Species."
	It came out in 1859 and caused a furor since most people believed God created the plants and animals.  Critics challenged him on the "infinitude of connecting links" he had predicted must exist.  "Where are these links?" they asked.
	The uproar died down as most scientists eventually accepted Darwin's theory, but even today there are some who ask where the "missing links" are.