Photo by Duy Pham on Unsplash

Evolution is synonymous with progress, and for good reason too. In order to push your species forward, you have to be at least as good as your ancestors. Fail to adapt to changing times and you will perish. Many living things have opted for collaboration to ensure their survival. From ants to apes to us humans, leveraging brains and muscle in groups yields great results.

Of the illustrious minds of the 1800s, none saw this more clearly than Charles Robert Darwin, the greatest contributor to the theory of evolution.

It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

—Charles Darwin

His famous work, “On The Origin of Species,” introduced the theory that populations of plants and animals evolve over the course of generations through a process called “natural selection.” The book is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology.

Darwin was not the first to propose evolutionary ideas, but his research was far more extensive than any previous undertakings by his peers. He was the first to postulate a satisfying evolutionary theory and publish it. The notions of “natural selection” and “preservation of favored races” are widely used to this day.