Charles Darwin
The father of evolutionary biology, Darwin is the most famous naturalist of the Victorian era, if not all time
When he first published his ideas, Darwin came under fire from the Church, but he has since been vindicated
The big idea
A key mechanism in evolution, natural selection describes how biological traits become more or less common through targeted reproduction within a population. By selectively reproducing changes in the gene pool, a species can gradually and non-randomly adapt to environmental factors beyond its control, upping its chances of survival.
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist renowned today for his theories of evolut ion and natural selection, both of which were introduced in his seminal work On The Origin Of Species. The book was both lambasted and celebrated on its publication. Early controversy stemmed from its apparent undermining of religious scripture, but it would become one of the most influential works of Western society, with the entire field of evolutionary studies arising from it.