Charles Darwin Like many students, Charles Darwin was only interested in topics that was interesting to him and although his father was a doctor, Darwin was very uninterested in medicine and he also couldn’t stand the sight of surgery. He did eventually get a degree in Theology from Cambridge University, Although Theology was a minor interest to him. What Darwin really liked to do was climb over hills, observe plants and animals, collecting new specimens, studying their structures, and categorizing his findings.
In 1831, when Darwin was 22 years old, the British government sent her Majesty's ship The Beagle on a 5 year expedition that would take them along the coastline of South America and then onward around the world. During the trip the Beagle would carry along a naturalist to observe and collect Geological and Biological specimens. Thanks to a recommendation from one of Darwin’s old college professors, he was offered the position aboard the Beagle.
The Beagle sailed to South America, making many stops along the coast. Here Darwin observed the plants and animals of the tropics and was stunned by the diversity of species compared with Europe. The most significant stop the Beagle made was the Galapagos Islands off the northwestern coast of South America. It was here that Darwin found huge populations of Tortoises; and he found out that different islands were home to different types of tortoises. He found that islands without tortoises, prickly pear cactus plants grew with their fruits spread all over the ground. And on Islands that had lots of tortoises, the prickly pears grew really thick, tall, bearing the fruit high above the tortoises reach......
