Darwin left the placid landscape of England behind to explore the dynamic terrain of coastal South America. The region's mountains, volcanoes, fossils, and people led to thousands of hours of observations, collecting specimens, and recording data. It was during this voyage that Darwin visited the Galapagos Archipelago, where he noticed the existence of several species of finches, all with vastly different beak shapes—an observation that would lead him to the conclusions about evolution he later elaborated on in his revolutionary On the Origin of Species.