What fossils did Charles Darwin discover at Punta Alta?

During the second voyage of the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin made a major discovery of gigantic fossils of extinct mammals at Punta Alta in Argentina. These fossil finds and his wider observations during the expedition undermined his belief that species are fixed. His discoveries formed the basis for the ideas that eventually led to his theory of evolution by natural selection.

What we know

• At Punta Alta in Argentina, Charles Darwin made a major find of gigantic fossils of extinct mammals that were previously known from very few specimens. [3]
• Darwin's fossil discoveries and observations during his expedition undermined his belief in the doctrine that species are fixed. [3]
• Remains collected by Charles Darwin in the Pampas during the Voyage of the Beagle were later used by Richard Owen to describe the extinct ground sloth species Mylodon darwini. [2, 5]

Where to go next

• whenHow did the second voyage of the HMS Beagle unfold?
• a case in pointWhat is the evolutionary significance of Mylodon darwini?
• what caused itHow did Charles Lyell's geology influence Darwin?
• the bigger pictureWhat is the history of evolutionary biology?
• compared withHow did Paramylodon differ from South American ground sloths?
• an unexpected connectionHow did ground sloths overlap with early humans?Although we think of extinct megafauna as belonging to a distant prehistoric world, giant ground sloths survived long enough to chronologically overlap with the earliest human inhabitants of the Americas.

Sources

• [1]Charles Darwin (Wikidata Q1035) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Charles Darwin · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Second voyage of HMS Beagle · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Paramylodon · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Mylodon · CC BY-SA 4.0