Darwin required time, and lots of it, for the many generations his theory required. So it is not surprising that Darwin took more than a chapter of the Origin of Species to present the geological evidence for the great age of the earth. For modern biologists, ironically, the problem is almost the reverse. Given how quickly evolution can take place, it almost seems odd that there hasnΓÇÖt been more of it!
Darwin learned much of his geology - and, indeed, much of his ecology ­ from Lyell’s Principles of Geology. He took the first volume with him on The Beagle, and had the second sent out to Montevideo, in what is now Uruguay. While on the voyage, he accepted many of Lyell’s assertions on the sudden origin and sudden death of species. However, he found fossils in South America that were closely related to animals still living there; when he went to the Galapagos, he found species of birds there that were more closely related to birds living on the South American mainland. These facts among others eventually led him to see that evolution must have occurred.
