What is On the Origin of Species?
{{italictitle}} [[File:Origin of Species.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The title page of the 1st edition]] '''''On the Origin of Species''''' is the famous book by [[Charles Darwin]]. It gave evidence for [[evolution]], and suggested what had [[wikt:cause|caused]] evolution to happen.<ref name=Costa>Darwin, Charles; Costa, James T. 2009. ''The Annotated Origin: a facsimile of the first edition of On the Origin of Species annotated by James T. Costa''. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: Belknap Press of Harvard University. {{ISBN|978-0-674-03281-1}}</ref> Its full title was ''On the origin of [[species]] by means of [[natural selection]], or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life''. It was published in [[London]] by John Murray in November 1859. It was translated into many languages, and has been in print ever since. The title since the 6th edition of 1872 has been ''The Origin of Species''.<ref name=rbf>{{citation| last = Freeman| first = Richard Broke| year = 1977| contribution = On the Origin of Species| contribution-url =http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Freeman_OntheOriginofSpecies.html| title = The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist| place = 2nd ed, Folkestone, England| publisher = Dawson| isbn = 0712907408| accessdate = 2009-02-22 }}</ref> This is the most important single book in the biological sciences, and its main ideas are well-supported by modern research.<ref name=Bowler>Bowler, Peter J. 2003. ''Evolution: the history of an idea''. 3rd ed, University of California Press, {{ISBN|0-520-23693-9}}</ref><ref>Browne, Janet 2007. ''Darwin's Origin of Species: a biography''. {{ISBN|978-0871139535}}</ref> == What the book did == Darwin's book did two things. First, it provided a great deal of [[evidence]] that evolution has taken place. Second, it proposed a [[theory]] to explain ''how'' evolution works. That theory is [[natural selection]].<ref name=Costa/> Evolution by natural selection is the key to understanding [[biology]], and th