Darwin and Evolution for Kids by Kristan Lawson

Author:Kristan Lawson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-08-11T02:14:38+00:00

During those eight years, from 1846 to 1854, the

He still had many problems to work out. One,

Darwin family had its ups and downs. Charles’s

in particular, had been bothering him for years.

father, Dr. Robert, died. Charles and Emma had

He could see how organisms could evolve as their

four more babies, and Down House was filled with

environments changed. If, for example, a species

children’s laughter and games. Charles spent his

of sheep had been living when the Earth passed

days hunched over his microscope. His kids grew

into one of the Ice Ages, only those sheep with

up thinking that studying barnacles was how fa-

thicker wool would survive the cold winters. Those thers spent their time. When they visited friends

born with short hair would freeze to death. As the they would ask, “Where does your daddy do his

environment got colder, the sheep would evolve

barnacles?”

thicker coats. But the fossil record revealed that Charles became sicker and sicker with his mys-sometimes animals evolved in different directions, terious illness. But the one thing that made him

even when the environment hardly changed at all.

sadder than anything else was the tragic death of

How could this happen? At the end of 1854 the an-

his eldest daughter, Anne, whom he liked to call

swer came to him. “I can remember the very spot

Annie. Her illness was as mysterious as his. In 1851

in the road,” he wrote, “whilst in my carriage, when he took her to a health resort called Malvern Spa, to my joy the solution occurred to me.”

but it did no good. She died at age 10, and Charles He realized that, in any ecosystem, there was

never really got over it. Every time he saw her pic-more than just one “ecological niche,” as it is now ture he burst into tears. He blamed himself, think-known. Imagine that a species of monkey migrates

This picture of Darwin was taken when he finished his ing she had inherited her ailment from him. But

into a forest. Two types of fruit grow in this forest: barnacle research around 1854. People rarely smiled for to this day no one really knows what made Annie

delicious, soft fruits that only grow at the very tops the camera in those days because they had to sit

sick.

of the slimmest branches of the tallest trees; and perfectly still for a long time to get a clear picture.

tough-skinned fruits that fall to the ground but are hard to tear open and chew. The average monkey

is too big and too heavy to reach the fruits on the The Road to the Origin

treetops, and his teeth are not quite strong enough to tear open the fruit on the ground. But because

With the hated barnacles finally out of the way,

of variation a few of the monkeys are smaller and

Darwin woke up on the morning of September 9,

more agile than average, and they can reach the 1854, with a clear mind and no further distrac-treetop fruits. A few other monkeys are born with

tions from what he knew was the task that would

stronger-than-average jaws and bigger teeth; they

define his career. “Began sorting notes for species can chew the tough fruits, at least a little bit.

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