Darwin and Evolution for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities

Darwin and Evolution for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities — page 9
tion got out of hand some kind of disaster inevitably came along to kill off its weakest members Sometimes this disas ter was a famine other times it was a plague a war or some other catastrophe But according to Malthus the root cause of poverty and suffering was the tendency of the human race to increase its population far more quickly than it could be fed All this seemed sensible to Darwin But then he realized that the same principles are true for all animal species not just humans In the wild most types of animals give birth to large litters yet most of these baby animals never grow up because they either starve to death or are eaten by preda tors Of course Why had it never occurred to him before The idea that struck Darwin at that moment was so amazing yet so obvious that he practically dropped the book on the floor Malthus had unknowingly revealed to him the secret of evo lution that had mystified scientists for