Naturalist Charles Darwin originated the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Darwin (1809–1882), who was born in Shrewsbury, England, on February 12, established the modern scientific understanding of humanity's place in nature. After his undergraduate education at Cambridge, Darwin served for nearly five years as a naturalist aboard a surveying ship, HMS Beagle, which traveled up and down the coasts of South America and then circled the globe. Darwin spent several years after his voyage publishing the results of his researches into fossils, botany, zoology, and geology. On the basis of this work, he formulated his initial ideas on evolution in the late 1830s and then spent two decades developing the theory of natural selection before publishing his chief work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859). In The Descent of Man...