Lonesome George

Lonesome George born in 1912 and died in 2012

He was the last known male of the subspecies of Pinta Island tortoises. He lived in the National Park of Ecuador with his keeper Fausto Llerena and he became known as the rarest creature in the world. He also became a symbol of the Galapagos Islands, which attracted almost 180,000 visitors a year. Scientists estimate he was about 100 years old but it's known that they can live up to an age of 200. George became part of the Galapagos National Park breeding programme when scientists discovered he was the only one of his species.For decades, environmentalists tried unsuccessfully to get the Pinta Island tortoise to reproduce with females from a similar subspecies on the Galapagos Islands. So after 15 years of living with a female tortoise, they became a couple, but the eggs were infertile. Finally he died 24 june 2012 with no offspring. Park officials said they would carry out a 'post-mortem' to determine the cause of his death and maybe they would embalmed his body to conserve him for future generations.

Tortoises were abundant on the Galapagos islands until the late 19th century but they were hunted for their meat by sailors and fishermen to the point of extinction. In addition the introduction of wild goats ate the vegetation that formed their diet, causing the destruction of their habitat.

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin born in 1809 and died in 1882.

It was an English naturalist who postulated that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through a process called natural selection. The evolution was accepted as fact by the scientific community and much of the public in his lifetime, while his theory of evolution by natural selection was not considered as the primary explanation of the evolutionary process until the 1930s.
 Now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin's scientific discoveries are still the foundation charter of biology as a science, since they constitute a logical explanation that unifies observations about the diversity of life.
With just 16 Darwin entered the University of Edinburgh, but was gradually neglecting his medical studies to pursue research of marine invertebrates. Later, the University of Cambridge gave wings to his passion for natural science.
 The second voyage of HMS Beagle cemented his reputation as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported the ideas of Charles Lyell uniformitarian, while publication of the diary of his journey made him famous as a popular writer. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838.
 Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority.
 He was writing his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay which described the same idea, urging Darwin to conduct a joint publication of both theories.

His seminal work, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of preferred races in the struggle for life, published in 1859, established that the explanation of the diversity found in nature is due to Cumulated changes by evolution over successive generations.
 Tried human evolution and natural selection in his book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, and later in The Expression of the Emotions in animals and man. He also spent a number of publications to his research in botany, and his latest work addressed the issue of terrestrial worms and their effects on soil formation.
 Two weeks before he died last brief published a paper on a tiny clam found in the legs of a water beetle in the English Midlands. That copy was sent by Walter Drawbridge Crick, paternal grandfather of Francis Crick, co-discoverer with James Dewey Watson of the molecular structure of DNA in 1953.

In recognition of the uniqueness of his work, was one of five characters nineteenth century outside the UK royalty honored with a state funeral,
 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.