Charles Robert Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He was the fifth of six children. Later in life after he finished his school, his father was annoyed by his neglect for medical studies and he sent Darwin to Christ’s college in Cambridge. He studied William Paley’s proof of Christianity there. In late 1831 Charles Darwin left for an expedition on the HMS Beagle. It was on this ship that he found evidence for his theory of evolution and natural selection.

The modern theory of evolution was developed by Charles Darwin, an amateur English naturalist, in the 19th century. He proposed that all of the millions of species of organisms present today, including humans, evolved slowly over billions of years, from a common ancestor by way of natural selection. This idea said that the individuals best adapted to their habitat passed on their traits to their offspring. Over time these advantageous qualities accumulated and transformed the individual into a species entirely different from its ancestors.

An example of natural selection and proof for the theory is the peppered moth. When newly industrialized parts of Britain became polluted in the nineteenth century, smoke killed white algae growing on trees and blackened their bark. Pale coloured moths which had been well camouflaged before when they rested on tree trunks became very conspicuous and were eaten by birds. Rare dark moths, which had been conspicuous before, were now well camouflaged in the black background. Because of this change in colour many more dark moths appeared in the late 19th century. This is a small-scale example of Darwinian evolution.