Pulling Lizards' Tails at the Birthplace of Darwin's Big Idea

Charles Darwin when he was still just Chucky D, likable bloke.

On September 15, 1835, 175 years ago today, Charles Darwin first set foot in the Galapagos Islands.  He seems to have been struck at first mainly by the starkness of the landscape.  In his diary, he wrote:  "These islands at a distance have a sloping uniform outline, excepting where broken by sundry paps & hillocks. — The whole is black Lava, completely covered by small leafless brushwood & low trees."

But the species he...