On the Origin of Species
The diversity of life explained without a designer
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Natural selection is among the simplest and most far-reaching ideas in science: variation, heredity and differential survival suffice to explain adaptation without purpose. Alfred Russel Wallace reached the same conclusion independently, which hastened publication. The theory lacked a mechanism of inheritance until Mendel's work was rediscovered around 1900, and was fused with genetics in the modern synthesis of the 1930s and 40s. It now underpins medicine, agriculture and ecology.
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Darwin noticed that animals best suited to where they live have the most offspring. Over very long spans of time that makes species change — and new species appear. Everything alive on Earth is related, all the way back to the first cell.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org