2009: The 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth

Royal Mail has also produced a special sheet of four stamps illustrating the unique wildlife of the Galpagos Islands that includes the Flightless Cormorant, Giant Tortoise, Floreana Mockingbird and Marine Iguana, and which builds up into a contemporary map of the Galpagos Islands with the key species Darwin studied in the 1830s during his voyage as Ship's Naturalist on the hydrographic survey ship HMS Beagle. The animals of these isolated islands and how they showed evidence of variation and evolution had a profound influence upon Darwin's theory of natural selection. The animals are shown against the background of the map produced on the mission by Captain Robert Fitzroy.

Miniature Sheet. Stamps showing some of the unique wildlife of the Galapagos Islands.
1st class - Flightless Cormorant
1st class - Giant Tortoise and Cactus Finch
81p - Marine Iguana
81p - Floreana Mockingbird

The animals are shown against the background of the map produced on the Beagle mission.

Credits:
Galapagos Islands map © Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of the UK Hydrographic Office; images of the flightless cormorant, giant tortoise, cactus finch, marine iguana and Floreana mockingbird © Tui De Roy, Roving Tortoise Nature