A second great task for Darwin was finding specialists who could investigate and describe a part of his finds. He couldn't do this all by himself. Thus he found Owen  and Waterhouse willing to handle the large mammals. Owen took the big fossils. A large skull, which Darwin had bought for 18 pence, turned out to be from a Taxodon, the giant rodent. Bones which Darwin thought to be from a giant llama, appeared to be from Macrauchenia, a huge tapir. On top is a page on Macrauchenia from Owen's book. Waterhouse took charge of the still living mammals (and the beetles) and published his Mammalia between 1846 and 1848. The famous birds artist John Gould took the birds for his account. He soon found out that the finches formed a unique group of related species, whereas Darwin considered them as totally different birds. Know more? Richard Owen

Darwin's star was rising fast. Especially in geological circles he was considered to be an expert. He was proud of this and he compared himself once with a peacock admiring his own tail. His first book after his Journal was thus a geological one, viz. on the way in which coral islands and atolls come into existence (1842). His explanation for atolls still applies: a volcano arises above the water surface; along the beach a coral reef is formed. The island is sinking slowly, but the coral reef is growing upward in order to stay in the zone with sunlight. The reef becomes a barrier reef parallel to the shore and the distance to the shore is increasing. At last the island has disappeared completely and only the ringshaped coral reef is projecting out of the water. Picture: a page from his book. Know more? Atolls: Video

Darwin 23

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