Fernandino’s iguana colony – with no significant predators around, these herbivores produce lots of young … they ventured into the sea itself to graze seaweed on the sea floor. ibid.
30,000 people live here in three small towns. ibid.
The presence of human beings has stopped this Finch from evolving. ibid.
Once-threatened species [tortoise] have been brought back from the brink. ibid.
A pink iguana … a hundred or so individuals … Nobody knows why it’s pink. ibid.
Each new discovery we make gives Darwin’s discovery a new relevance. ibid.
Darwin had explained how different species evolved but he also proposed that all life was inter-related having come from a common origin. David Attenborough, 60 Years in the Wild II: Understanding the Natural World, BBC 2012
A hundred and fifty years after the publication of Darwin’s revolutionary book, modern genetics has confirmed its fundamental truth – all life is related. And it enables us to construct with confidence the complex tree that represents the history of Life. David Attenborough, Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, BBC 2009
Darwin’s great insight revolutionised the way in which we see the world. We now understand why there are so many different species. Why they are distributed the way they are around the world. And why their bodies and our bodies are shaped in the way that they are. Because we understand that bacteria evolve, we can devise methods of dealing with the diseases they cause. And because we can disentangle the complex relationships between animals and plants in the natural community, we can foresee some of the consequences when we start to interfere with those communities. But above all, Darwin has shown us that we are not apart from the natural world. We do not have dominion over it. We are subject to its law and processes as are all other animals on Earth, to which indeed we are related. ibid.
Almost 200 years ago whilst walking these very paths in the English countryside and observing the banks and meadows near his home, Charles Darwin developed his groundbreaking ideas about evolution, casting a new light on the natural world and opening out eyes to its true wonder. David Attenborough, Planet Earth s3e1: Coasts, BBC 2023
The natural world continues to surprise us. But since Darwin’s time it has changed beyond recognition, transformed by a powerful force – us. We will see how animals are adapting in extraordinary ways to survive these new challenges they face. ibid.
Charles Darwin was a natural history scientist. Great Scientists: Charles Darwin, WAG 2011
He put together the most extraordinary and comprehensive collection of diverse specimens. ibid.
He became a sickly reserved recluse. ibid.
He concluded the finches must all be derived from a common ancestor. ibid.
The more fit an animal is to survive the more likely it will be able to reproduce. ibid.
A mechanism for how species developed on Earth. ibid.
Charles Darwin transformed for ever the way we think about life. ibid.
What Darwin was undermining in his work was a fundamental belief. A belief in human uniqueness. By suggesting a close kinship with animals he’d also opened the lid on the rational mind. Hinting at a dark subterranean world of instincts, desires, emotions: the animal within. Michael Mosley, The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion, BBC 2010
Darwin removed the main argument for God’s existence. Professor Richard Dawkins, interview Professor Richard Blakemore, Christianity: A History: God and the Scientists, Channel 4 2009
The Darwinian theory raises our consciousness to the fact that any God worthy of the name would have to be ... particularly demanding of the explanation he purports to provide. Richard Dawkins, interviewing Steven Weinberg
Charles Darwin turned our world upside down. His theory of evolution by natural selection is one of the most profound and far-reaching ideas in human history. It’s also, alas, one of the most controversial. Science now has the evidence that proves evolution is true, yet today, incredibly, the opposition to Darwin is more fiercely vocal than ever, denying plain facts in more and more elaborate ways. Richard Dawkins, God Strikes Back: The Genius of Charles Darwin, Channel 4 2008
I feel strongly that the barbarism that was the culmination of eugenics in the twentieth century was atrocious. But it is important to say that eugenics is not Darwinism. Eugenics is not a version of natural selection. Hitler, despite popular legend, was not a Darwinist. Every farmer, horticulturalist or pigeon-fancier knew how to breed for desired outcomes. Eugenicists like Hitler borrowed from breeders. What Darwin uniquely realised is that Nature can play the role of breeder. Darwin has been wrongly tainted. I’ve always hated how Darwin is wheeled out to justify cut-throat business competition, racism and right-wing politics. And throughout my career I’ve grappled with the apparent paradox of the way cooperation, being nice to each other, even morality, could evolve from the mindless brutality of Nature. Richard Dawkins, The Genius of Charles Darwin part II
Darwin’s great insight was that life evolved steadily and slowly, inching its way gradually over four billion years. Natural selection, not a divine designer, was the sculptor of life. So evolution driven by Darwin’s motor of natural selection gets us to the top of mount improbable. From primeval simplicity to ultimate complexity. The design hypothesis doesn’t even begin to do that. Because it raises an even bigger problem than it solves. Who made the designer? Richard Dawkins, The Root of All Evil? The God Delusion, Channel 4 2006
I think that The Origin of Species is one of the greatest revolutions ever to hit the human mind. Before Darwin came along nobody really understood that it was possible to explain big complex beautiful elegant things in simple terms. People thought that in order to explain big things like life you had to have an even bigger explanation like God. What Darwin showed is that you can explain big complicated beautiful things in terms of simpler things, and that’s a real scientific explanation. Richard Dawkins, interview Horizon: The President’s Guide to Science, BBC 2008
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection explains everything about Life – its complexity, its beauty, its elegance, its diversity. Richard Dawkins, interview Darwin’s Brave New World, CBC 2009
He is one of the greatest scientists who has ever lived. He provided the explanation for my existence and yours. And the existence of every living creature. You can explain everything about life. Now that’s a powerful idea. ibid.
The immediate implication of Darwin’s views is that we understand why we exist. Richard Dawkins, interview Professor Robert Winston, The Story of God, BBC 2005
The elegance of Darwinism is corrosive to religion precisely because it is so elegant, so parsimonious, so powerful, so economically powerful. Richard Dawkins, lecture An Atheist’s Call to Arms, TED 2002
The theory of natural selection was his greatest contribution ... How the fantastically complicated illusion of design that living creatures have could have been produced ... by an automatic undersigned unplanned process. Richard Dawkins, Radio Ulster 2008
Alfred Russel Wallace, independent co-discoverer with Darwin of evolution by natural selection, actually called his paper ‘On the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type’. Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth p22
Not only is the first chapter of On the Origin of Species all about domestic varieties of animals and plants; Darwin also wrote a whole book on the subject ... Another familiar example is the sculpting of the wolf, Canis lupus. ibid. p27
The main point I want to draw out of domestication is its astonishing power to change the shape and behaviour of wild animals, and the speed with which it does so. Breeders are almost like modellers with endlessly malleable clay ... This is why Darwin gave so much prominence to domestication at the beginning of On the Origin of Species. ibid. p28
Darwin’s special genius realized that nature could play the role of selecting agent ... you don’t have to have a choosing agent. The choice can be made automatically by survival – or failure to survive. Survival counts, Darwin realised, because only survivors reproduce and pass on the genes (Darwin didn’t use the word) that helped them to survive. ibid. pp62-63
Darwin later came to recognize the crucial importance of islands and archipelagos for his theory, and he did several experiments to settle questions about the theory of geographical isolation as a prelude to speciation. ibid. p271
Darwin was well aware of the significance of the geographical distribution of species for his theory of evolution. ibid. p272
What Darwin didn’t – couldn’t – know is that the comparative evidence becomes even more convincing when we include molecular genetics, in addition to the anatomical comparisons that were available to him. ibid. p315
It was Darwin and Wallace who saw the principle of artificial selection that everybody understood could be generalised to Nature. Richard Dawkins, lecture New York Academy of Sciences October 2009, CSpan2 TV, Youtube 1.24.35
Wallace undoubtedly had the same idea … while out in the Far East; he was just recovering from malaria … He remembered reading Malthus … He made the analogy between artificial selection and natural selection - everything the same as Darwin … Wallace undoubtedly deserves equal credit. Richard Dawkins, interview Joan Bakewell Hay Festival 2017, Youtube 56.57