Darwin the great Puzzlist

Charles Darwin's book, The Origin of Species, revolutionized the scientific world. His proposed method of evolution, natural selection, is the central point of modern day evolution. It did not start off that way and Darwin was definitely not the first person to propose evolution to explain the huge variety of life on our earth, but he was able to put it all together in one central idea that continues on today. The theory of natural selection and evolution as we know it today was actually the triumph of many years of research and observation by many people all of the globe. There were major and minor players. Some ideas purposed were correct some where wrong but eventually they all helped Darwin reach his conclusion.

Some of the major Players:

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck - Naturalist, Botanist, Scientist; Showed how changes in species accumulate over time

Erasmus Darwin - Charles Darwin's grandfather; proposed ideas for evolution using a integrative approach (compiling of evidence from many different fields of study)

Gregor Mendel - Monk and Botanist; showed how traits were inherited across generations

Charles Lyell - Geologist; Wrote Principles of Geology which greatly influenced Darwin's ideas

A. Russel Wallace - Naturalist, proposed natural selection at the same time as Darwin

And Many More

Darwin was a genius, but he was not a genius because he came up with something brand new out of thin air, rather his discoveries are remarkable because he was able to find something new from observations that had been previously made. Of course he had many of his own observations to back up his ideas but he was able to take what many great scientists had already done and put it together to discover something no one else had.

Darwin was the person that completed the puzzle. He didn't make up new pieces, he was just smart enough to put the existing ones together.