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Hi kids. My name is Charles Darwin. I've spent my life traveling 

the world and working on the Theory of Evolution.

Evolution is the slow process that changes animals and plants. It 

describes lots of things in nature like fossils, bird's wings, dinosaurs, 

peacock's tail and human brains.  

A species is a group of animals or plants that are very similar. Members of 

a species share the same characteristics. All species are related to each 

other in some way. A species is a group of animals or plants that are very 

similar. Members of a species share the same characteristics. According to 

my Theory of Evolution all species are related to each other in some way. 

A few pieces of evidence supporting my theory are fossil records, where 

the animal lives or bio-geography, anatomy, embryology or study of the 

embryos and biochemistry.

Fossils are the remains of animals and plants which have died and were 

buried. Over millions of years they can be turned into rock with pressure. 

The Earths crust doesn't stay still because it consists of lots of slabs of 

rock called plates which float on a layer of molten rock.

If a fossil is in a piece of rock with enough pressure, it might appear on 

the surface and some fortunate fellow might find it some day. The fossil 

record is incomplete and doesn't record every species that has ever lived 

but we do have fossils of very simple life that date back to 3.5 billion 

years ago! As you go through the fossil groups, toward present day, 

more groups of plants, trees, fish, animals, amphibians, reptiles and 

mammals pop up. 

In some cases the fossil record has preserved an animal or plant in two 

different groups. These 'imtermediates' show evolution caught in the act! 

Bio-geography is another great piece of evidence to support Evolution. 

Bio-geography is the distribution of plants and animals on the Earth. I 

was particularly interested in the life forms of the Galapagos Islands 

when studying this. I noticed how many of the birds and other animals 

on the islands were found only there. The finches were particularly 

puzzling; I found 13 species of finches not found anywhere else in the 

world, as far as I knew. I then concluded that the finches had evolved 

from a common ancestral group that probably reached the island many 

generations earlier. In the isolation of the Galapagos Islands, the original 

finches had probably evolved into the 13 species.

An example of this the fact that there is no rabbits in South America and 

marsupials (kangaroo like creatures) found only in Australia. When 

geographical barriers form and species may be forced to adapt and 

evolve. 

 An ideal called behavioral isolation may occur. This is when a species has 

been separated so long that it no longer understands species behavior. 

An example of this is when birds no longer recognize their species mating 

calls. 

Anatomy is another area where evidence is found. Some organisms are 

similar to each other but are not exactly the same. Similar organisms have 

differences that help them adapt to their environments. Many organisms 

have similar body parts or anatomy. Horses', donkeys' and zebras' bodies 

are all set up in pretty much the same way, because they are descended 

from a common ancestor. As organisms adapt and evolve, not everything 

about them changes.

The differences, such as the zebras stripes, show that each species adapted to 

its own environment after branching off from the common ancestor. 

 Scientists keep track of these connections with charts called cladograms 

showing how the species are related back to the ancestor. 

Embryology is a another and rather new piece of evidence. An embryo is 

an unborn (or unhatched animal or human young in its earliest phases. 

Embryos of many different kinds of animals including mammals, birds, 

reptiles and fish look very similar and it is often difficult to tell them 

apart. 

Many traits of one type of animal appear in the embryo of another type 

of animal. For example, fish embryos and human embryos both have gill 

like slits. In fish they develop into gills but in humans they disappear 

before birth. This shows that the animals are similar and that they are 

related, have common ancestors and that they started out the same, 

gradually evolving different traits, but that the basic plan for a creatures 

beginning remains the same. 

The final area where evidence is found is Biochemistry. Although the 

biochemistry of organisms was not well known in my time, modern 

biochemistry indicates there is a biochemical similarity in all living things. 

This comparison of biochemical processes with ancient species is called 

comparative biochemistry. 

 For example, the same mechanisms for trapping and transforming 

energy and for building proteins from amino acids are nearly identical in 

almost all living systems. DNA and RNA are the mechanisms for 

inheritance   and gene activity in all living organisms. The structure of the 

genetic code is almost identical in all living things. This uniformity in 

biochemical organization underlies the diversity of living things and 

points to evolutionary relationships.

Well, that's all the evidence I've got for 

now but I'm sure there is much more to 

come!

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