On the Origin of Species

Sun, 21 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Every species produces far more offspring than can ever survive. Pair that with two more facts — individuals within a population vary slightly, and they pass their traits to their young — and you have the engine that built the living world. Across immense stretches of time, tiny inherited advantages accumulate, generation after generation, until they add up to new species, to organs as intricate as the eye, and to the deep anatomical kinship running through all life. Darwin called this process natural selection, and his argument is that it accounts for the diversity and fit of living things without any need for separate acts of creation.

Charles Darwin on SummaryShelf

On the Origin of Species