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Galápagos: Islands of Change

Science Scope—January 2000

The Galápagos Islands are sometimes thought of as the birthplace of evolution. Not because evolution begins there, not because evolution occurs there and nowhere else, but because the results of evolution so visible. A visit to these islands in 1835 helped cement in Charles Darwin’s mind his theory of “descent with modification” or evolution. Darwin later published his theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species in 1859. One hundred and forty years after its publication, the Galápagos are still a favorite living laboratory for scientists to study the processes of evolution.
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