LIFE SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -While visiting the Galapagos in 1835, British naturalist Charles Darwin observed local plants and animals. He became fascinated by species that seemed related to ones found on the mainland-but that also had many physical variations unique to different islands.

Detailed explanation-2: -In Galapagos he found a remarkable population of plants, birds and reptiles that had developed in isolation from the mainland, but often differed on almost identical islands next door to one another and whose characteristics he could only explain by a gradual transformation of the various species.

Detailed explanation-3: -In the mid-1800s, Charles Darwin famously described variation in the anatomy of finches from the Galapagos Islands.

Detailed explanation-4: -Darwin and the HMS Beagle were in Galapagos during September and October of 1835, and through this time, he had the opportunity to explore a handful of islands, and collect several Galapagos species for use in his own research and that of his friends back in England.

Detailed explanation-5: -In South America, Darwin found fossils of extinct animals that were similar to modern species. Furthermore, on the Galapagos Islands he noticed many variations of plants and animals that were similar to those he found in South America, suggesting that species adapted over time and to their environment.