The Origin of Species

First published on 24 November 1859, The Origin of Species (full title On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life) by British naturalist Charles Darwin is one of the pivotal works in scientific history, and arguably the pre-eminent work in biology. In it, Darwin makes "one long argument" for his theory that "groups" of organisms, (which we now call populations) rather than individual organisms, gradually evolve through the process of natural selection—a mechanism effectively introduced to the public at large by the book. The work presents detailed scientific evidence he had accumulated both on the Voyage of the Beagle in the 1830s and since his return, painstakingly laying out his theory and refuting the doctrine of "Created kinds" underlying the theories of Creation biology which were then widely accepted.

References

• Darwin, Charles (1859) On the Origin of Species. John Murray, London.
• Darwin, Charles & Huxley, Julian (2003). The Origin of Species. Signet Classics. ISBN 0-45-152906-5.
• Jones, Steves (1999). Almost Like a Whale. Doubleday. ISBN 0-38-540985-0. (contemporary introduction to The Origins of Species)
• Clark, Ronald W. (1984). The Survival of Charles Darwin. New York: Avon Books. ISBN 0-380-69991-5
• Desmond, Adrian & Moore, James (1991). Darwin. London: the Penguin Group. ISBN 0-7181-3430-3