What is the significance of On the Origin of Species?
British naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) first proposed a theory of evolution based on natural selection in his book On the Origin of Species. (Evolution is the theory that all plants and animals developed gradually from earlier forms over a long period of time and that the variations within a species are the result of adaptive traits passed on from generation to generation.) The publication of On the Origin of Species ushered in a new way of thinking about life on Earth, from the struggle for existence to our place in the universe. The first edition of On the Origin of Species sold out on the day of publication (November 24, 1859). It brought about an intellectual revolution even more profound than Isaac Newton’s explanation of gravity. In Darwin’s day, the prevailing explanation for the diversity of life on Earth was the…
