200 Years After Darwin

摘要

On February 12, 2009, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. He has earned the scientific reputation as being the most influential naturalist-biologist of his generation and perhaps of all time. Achievement of his esteemed status resulted initially from studying the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils collected on his 5-year voyage on the Beagle and concluding that the "transmutation of species" was due to natural selection.1 In 1858, he was in the process of documenting his research when he received an essay from Alfred Russel Wallace putting forth the same concept of natural selection as the mechanism for generation of new species, resulting in a joint publication that same year.2 On the Origin of Species3 was published by Darwin in 1859, making it now the 150th anniversary of its publication