Lonesome George lived in the Galapagos, a chain of volcanic islands off the coast of Ecuador, in South America—islands that forever changed our understanding of the natural world. While visiting the Galapagos in 1835, British naturalist Charles Darwin observed local plants and animals. He became fascinated by species that seemed related to ones found on the mainland—but that also had many physical variations unique to different islands.
Over time, Darwin began to wonder if species from South America had reached the Galapagos and then changed as they adapted to new environments. This idea—that species could change over time—eventually led to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
