GALAPAGOS AND EVOLUTION

Darwin arrived for the first time in Ecuador when he was 26 years old. He was astonished by the great quantity of turtles and iguanas that live in the area, to which he referred as "the paradise for reptiles." In the scientific expedition on board the Beagle, Darwin visited in five weeks most of the islands of Galapagos (San Cristbal, Floreana, Isabel and Santiago).

In the archipelago he found plants and animals of the same type: even fossils of extinct animals similar to the modern ones. This way, the naturalist got to the conclusion that the marine iguanas came from the terrestrial species of reptiles that extinguished hundred of millions of years ago.

There are 13 species of chaffinches (terrestrial birds) known today as they were studied by Darwin. The naturalist sustained that these birds evolved starting from a unique group, from what he deduced that the changes were gradual and that millions of years had passed, before they adapted to the environment and before they transmited the new characteristics to the following generations.

He explained that the mechanism of the evolution was a process called natural selection and that most species come from a unique branch. As a result of his investigations, he published "The Origin of the Species", in 1859.