lomesome george

Lonesome George

Lonesome George: The 200 pound, 5 foot long reptile was thought to be in the prime of his life around 100 years old, which is not particularly old for a giant tortoise.George was the last remaining tortoise in his particular subspecies, Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni, which is believed to date back some 10 million years. The giant tortoises had evolved like many creatures on the isolated Galapagos archipelago to become large and trusting.

Scientists had been trying to get George to mate since 1993, when they introduced two female tortoises of a different subspecies into his pen. They laid eggs twice, but they were infertile.

The pen where George lived was visited by thousands of tourists every year, who often had to scramble with each other to take pictures of one of the rarest creatures on Earth. Tortoises were hunted for their meat by sailors and fishermen to the point of extinction, while their habitat has been eaten away by goats introduced from the mainland. Some 20,000 giant tortoises still live on the Galapagos.

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin was a brilliant naturalist who changed the way people think about life on earth. One reason why he was able to do this was because he was always passionate about science and nature. He was born on 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882 in the United Kingdom.

Darwin's father was a famous doctor, however Darwin hated medicine. He loved the nature but he hated the school and his dad thought that he was a very lazy person and he wanted that his soon follow him with the job. His father tried that Darwin studied medicine, but he just stayed on the beach looking the landscape.

Charles quit medicine and his Dad suggested a new career, he could become a priest. Charles went to Christ’s College, Cambridge to study to become a priest… but he didn’t really like that! He spent all his time with his cousin collecting thousands of beetles. At Cambridge Charles met Professor Henslow who was big into plants, and Professor Sedgwick who was big into rocks. They took Charles under their wing and taught him how to study nature in a scientific way. Finally Charles found something he loved.

 When Charles was 22, he went in a trip around the world, he stayed in a big ship called Beagle. In this trip he could study a lot of the nature and he learnt many things. He developed the theory of Darwinism and Natural selection. 

Ángel Castillo