New evidence argues that Darwin’s theory is incorrect

Charles Darwin’s famed theory on atoll evolution is flawed, a pair of scientists argue in a new paper.

Retired Rice University professor André Droxler and fellow marine geologist and oceanographer Stéphan Jorry’s 37-page paper claims that Darwin’s 1842 theory on coral reef atolls shows inconsistency.

According to Droxler, atolls “come out of the abyssal plain of the ocean to almost no depth” and that Darwin’s Royal Navy vessel, the Beagle, “spent a lot of time mapping reefs because they were such hazards to shipping.”

During Darwin’s time, geologists believed that oceans were sinking and continents were steadily rising, and that he may have noticed that both barrier and fringing reefs surrounded volcanic islands. This led him to think that reefs start to form on volcanic island fringes and an atoll is the remaining reef of a deceased volcano that sank back into the ocean.

“Cyclic changes in sea level drive atoll formation,” Droxler said in a release. “Darwin had no concept that sea level could go up and down, because glaciation didn’t become common knowledge until the 1860s.”

Droxler and Jorry’s extensive study includes several illustrations and comparisons of contemporary maps and satellite imagery with Darwin’s original representation.

Their study was supported by the Royal Dutch Shell, Total, the Environmental Protection Agency of the Maldives, the Passive Margins Exploration Laboratories, the University of South Florida, the French Institute of Petroleum, Pierre and Marie Curie University, the University of Western Brittany, the University of Rennes, the French National Center for Scientific Research, the Passive Margins Exploration Laboratories research program of IFREMER and the National Science Foundation.