Ecuador owns the Galápagos Islands, the archipelago linked to Charles Darwin’s evolution studies.
The Galápagos are an Ecuadorian archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 kilometres west of mainland South America. Ecuador formally claimed the islands in 1832, three years before Darwin visited them aboard HMS Beagle.
Darwin spent several weeks collecting observations in 1835. The islands’ varied environments and distinctive animals, including finches, tortoises, and mockingbirds, later helped him develop ideas about adaptation and natural selection. His major evolutionary work was published in On the Origin of Species in 1859.
The archipelago is volcanic and straddles the equator. Many species are endemic, meaning they occur naturally nowhere else. Galápagos National Park was created in 1959, and the surrounding marine reserve protects important ocean habitats. The islands are not named after Darwin; their name comes from an old Spanish word associated with saddle-shaped tortoise shells.