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With the success of his travel book The Voyage of the Beagle and his publication about his theories of natural selection, entitled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, Charles Darwin became a member of the scientific elite of England. It was his five-year voyage to coastal countries of South America and the Galapagos Islands – something his family had discouraged – that made this naturalist and theologian one of the top biologists and evolutionists in the world.

To the dismay of his father, and being turned off from the grotesqueness of operations, Darwin halted further studies in the field of medicine. Instead, he would turn his focus to the natural sciences, joining clubs and taking as many classes as he could muster. By taking the famed Robert Jameson’s natural history course, he learned how to categorize plants and animals, which would prove invaluable as he took notes and specimens on the Beagle voyage.

At Christ’s College, Darwin’s father wanted him to become a clergyman. So, while he took course in theological studies, he also took courses in natural history under Stevens Henslow. It was at this time that Henslow recommended that Charles Darwin assist the crew on the Beagle in what was supposed to be a two-year journey of exploration.

During Darwin’s time on board the ship, he read, took notes, and studied even more attempting to gather as much information about the specimens he would encounter. He visited Patagonia, Chile, Argentina, and the Galapagos. Additionally, he took samples of plants and of any fossils he could find. It was in the Galapagos that he noticed the same species of bird had different characteristics on two separate islands. This intrigued him and he built on Charles Lyell’s ideas about creation, hypothesizing that the same animals could change over time dependent upon their environment –something groundbreaking and very much against the church’s teachings.

Upon his return to England, Darwin already had a following. It was Henslow, his previous professor, who had shared Charles Darwin’s writings and some of his preliminary theories. He returned to London with much more work for the future of science and biology than he could have ever imagined. Darwin went on to theorize about the different tortoises in the Galapagos. On different islands, the tortoises had adapted to their environment over time in order to survive. With these theories came scrutiny from the church, but his overall logic that plants and animals evolved and adapted and the proof his findings provided was enough to change the direction of biology forever.