Abstract

SEVILLA PEREZ, Ana. The Mystery of Mysteries. The Galápagos Islands in Ecuador and the Work "The Origin of Species". Historelo.rev.hist.reg.local [online]. 2018, vol.10, n.19, pp.123-155. ISSN 2145-132X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/historelo.v10n19.61461.

Charles Darwin mentions the Galápagos Islands in two sections of his book The Origin of Species. Compared with other sources of information, data collected in this archipelago are not the leading character of his great work. This fact contrasts with contemporary historiography and popular culture, which bestow a central role on these islands in Darwin's thinking. How and when Darwin solved the "great mystery of mysteries" and, in particular, the role played by his visit to the Galápagos Islands in this regard have become the subjects of a remarkable legend in the history of science. This article, which is based on an analysis of The Origin of Species, aims to understand the role played by the impressions and data collected in the Galapagos Islands in the development of the theory of natural selection. This information was clearly an important source of inspiration, but Darwin did not discover evolution on the islands. The specimens collected in the Galápagos were not the singular key to his theory of evolution as is often portrayed today. Decades of experimentation on domestic species in Britain provided most of the evidence for the development of his theory.

Keywords : history of science; natural selection; legends.

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