Charles Robert Darwin

Darwin, Charles Robert (1809–82), English naturalist who formulated and elaborated the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin sailed around the world on the H.M.S. Beagle (1831–36), collecting data on the variability of species. In 1858 Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, working independently, published outlines of their concepts of natural selection. His greatest books were The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871), which advanced overwhelming evidence for his theories.

See also: Natural selection; Social Darwinism.