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From Histories of Life: Searching for Order
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_-_CQ.jpg "Darwin, <em>The Origin</em>: diagram")
Darwin, The Origin: diagram
Darwin believed that order in nature was embodied in a process—evolution through natural selection—which he represented here. Simpler than any blueprint, natural selection gave order to the entire history of life, and it explained the similarities and differences found in both living forms and the fossil record. Since it left open the question of purpose in nature, this process seemed aimless and godless to some. But to Darwin and others, it was profoundly beautiful.
About the Book Illustration:
This diagram, the only image in Origin of Species, visualizes the process of evolution through natural selection. Darwin represented the histories of two hypothetical species of the same genus, side by side, as branching lines that start at the bottom and move up, crossing horizontal bars that mark the time span of a thousand generations. In each time span, many varieties of the species arise, but only a few survive. Those survivors become ever more different from each other and from their ancestors.
Charles Darwin (1809–1882). The Origin of Species (previously titled On the Origin...). 6th ed. London: John Murray, [1872] 1883.
