Darwin, Charles (1809-1882)

English biologist who recorded his notes from the field in "The Voyage of the Beagle "(1848). Darwin's "Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" (1859) and "The Descent of Man" (1871) revolutionized modern science by proposing a non-teleological explanation for the survival of otherwise random variations in animal species. Despite opposition from biblical literalists, a Darwinian version of the theory of evolution became widely accepted within a few decades.