How did Charles Darwin's fossil record provide evidence for evolution?
1 Answer
Charles Darwin was a young Cambridge graduate when he joined the voyage of H M S Beagle as a naturalist. Darwin happened to read two important books on palaeontology and geology: one by Georges Cuvier and the other by Charles Lyell.
Before he embarked on the voyage, Darwin already got exposed to the idea of 'transmutation' of species, a term later replaced by the word 'evolution' .
During the voyage Darwin used to collect specimens (he was a hunter as well!), when he came across some fossils in Argentina; but do remember that Darwin was really someone beyond a regular palaeontologist.
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He unearthed a giant fossilised structure which looked like outer shell of an armadillo like animal, but he was astonished that only small armadillos lived in the area.
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Darwin also found very large fossilised bones of ground sloths in South America, but he saw only smaller but related sloths living in the continent.
Both these finds inspired him to believe in appearance of newer forms of life from earlier forms which no longer exist on earth.
Darwin returned from his voyage in 1836, and his idea on evolution already took final shape by 1839, but he waited for almost two decades before directly coming out with his natural selection theory.
