A MAN WHOSE IDEA CHANGED THE WORLD Charles Darwin was an English scientist who studied nature He lived in the 1800s during a time known as the Victorian Age Queen Victoria ruled the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland At that time many new ideas and changes were taking place in science and technology One question people were asking asking was why so many kinds of creatures lived on Earth Darwin developed a SCIENTIFIC THEORY that explained why His explanation was simple and made sense It also went against what most people believed at the time His idea was so bold that he had to keep it secret for many years 4 CHAPTER ONE
Darwin’s daring idea was about evolution the theory that all the kinds of living things that exist today changed from earlier types He wasn’t the first person to think about evolution But he was the first person to develop a full-scale theory that explained how evolution works He backed his theory up with solid scientific proof Darwin eventually wrote about evolution in a book called The English scientist Charles Darwin is shown in a photograph from around 1880 Vocabulary A SCIENTIFIC THEORY is an explanation for why things work or how things happen Scientists develop theories based on ideas that can be tested Theories are not based on a guess 5
CHARLES DARWIN modern Thoroughbred Przewalski's horse Equus caballus przewalskil bones of forefoot On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection 1859 Many consider it to be the best science book ever written Darwin's work changed how people thought about the science of biology forever Equus Quick Fact A gentle man Charles Darwin was once called the dearest sweetest loveliest old grandpa that ever was 2 3 4 5 Merychippus Animal illustrations are to scale 2 3 4 5 Michippus 100 cm 3 feet 36 inches Horses have evolved over time At left the bottom horse is from about fifty four million years ago The top one is from the present Over millions of years horses grew in size Meanwhile they lost all but one of their toes 5 4 3 2 Hyracotherium dawn horse
CHAPTER TWO SHOOTING DOGS AND RAT-CATCHING Charles Robert A portrait of Charles Darwin with his younger sister Catherine was drawn in chalk in 1816 Darwin was born on February 12 1809 in Shrewsbury Eng land Darwin’s father Robert was a doctor Both Robert and his wife Susannah came from wealthy families families One of Charles’s grandfathers was Josiah Wedgwood who owned a famous 7
