Who or what inspired Charles Darwin to write Origins Of Species?

Answer 1

Charles Darwin had gone on a long scientific "cruise" around many parts of the world, where he saw first-hand the diversity of nature across the globe. When he came to the Galapagos Islands, he became interested in a group of species of birds that were in some ways similar but in other ways sometimes remarkably different. Each species of finch, whether on a single island or several, had obvious traits meant to take advantage of certain food supplies. Nevertheless, it was not hard to see that many of them were similar, as the traits they had acquired had not separated themselves fully from one another. Darwin reasoned that, a long time ago, all of these species were a single species, but eventually it had split many times as certain sections became specialized towards a specific food supply (natural selection). This idea prompted him to take a closer look at the rest of the species in the world, and led to his conclusions that he wrote in On The Origin of Species.