Charles Robert Darwin was born at Shrewsbury, England on 12 February 1809. His principal works, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) marked a new epoch in the study of biology. Darwin first studied medicine in Edinburgh and then theology at Cambridge. While at Cambridge Darwin came in touch with John Stevens Henslow, a biology professor. Eventually, Darwin befriended Adam Sedgwick, a geology professor and during a trip to Wales Darwin learnt much about the rocks and fossils from Sedgwick’s on-the-spot tutorials. Through the effort of Professor Henslow Darwin secured an invitation to join the voyage of HMS Beagle as a naturalist. The Beagle left England in 1831 and returned in 1836. Rest of his life was mostly occupied in writing the findings of the voyage and in documenting the theory of transmutation of species.
       Darwin would be remembered as an outstanding evolutionist. Equally outstanding are his works on the adaptation of flowers and animal psychology. Darwin ended his life in 1882 but his fame will never die.