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A new generation of evolutionary biologists will this Thursday celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the father of evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin, at The University of Western Australia.

Sixty Year 10 students from Shenton College and Mount Lawley Senior High School will join UWA scientists in enjoying a big cake shaped like the Galapagos tortoise Lonesome George, the last remaining Pinta tortoise.

The cake will be the culmination of a morning's activities which will start at 9.15 am with 15-minute talks on the evolution of microbes, plants and animals by Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (FNAS) Dean Professor Tony O'Donnell, School of Plant Biology Senior Lecturer Dr Patrick Finnegan and ARC Federation Fellow in the School of Animal Biology Professor Leigh Simmons.

After the mini lectures, the students will take part in practical laboratory sessions where they will extract the DNA of pea plants with senior laboratory technician Gary Cass and participate in a parade of vertebrate bones with Animal Biology Lecturer Dr Jamie O'Shea.

Media are welcome at the birthday celebrations, held in the Molecular and Chemical Sciences Lecture Room G.33, the FNAS Central Teaching Laboratories and the FNAS common room.

Enter the University at Hackett Entrance 3 and park to the left in the yellow bays. The sites are on campus map grid L 17. Visit https://www.ceb.uwa.edu.au/ for more information and the linked homepage for the map.

(Lonesome George, estimated to be between 60 and 90 years old, is the last surviving member of his subspecies. Darwin visited the Galapagos in 1835, when he was 26, aboard the HMS Beagle. It was where his theory on the origin of species was born).

Media references

Gary Cass (+61 4) 00 636 818
Sally-Ann Jones (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8) 6488 7975 / (+61 4) 20 790 098