Darwin, Charles

Charles DarwinDarwin, Charles

(1809–82) a British scientist who developed the Theory of Evolution, the idea that plants and animals develop gradually from simpler to more complicated forms by natural selection. This is the process by which only plants and animals that are naturally suitable for life in their environment will continue to live, while all others will die. He wrote about his ideas in his book On the Origin of Species (1859), and this caused a lot of argument because some people thought his ideas were an attack on the description given in the Bible of the way life began.

—Darwinian /dɑːˈwɪniən $ dɑːr-/ adjectiveadj

the Darwinian theory of evolution