COVER TK

Michael KellerILLUSTR ATED BY NICOLLE R AGER FULLER

A G R A PHIC ADA P TATION

Ch

arles Darw

in’s O

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e Origin

of S

peciesM

ichael K

eller Illustrated by N

icolle Rager FullerISBN: 978-1-60529-697-5

9 781605 296975

51999

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$19.99$25.50 CAN

Science/Graphic Novel

Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death,

the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely,

the production of the higher animals directly follows. There is

a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been

originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms

or into one . . . and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on

according to the fi xed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning

endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been,

and are being, evolved.

—Charles Darwin, from On the Origin of Species

A stunning graphic adaptation

of one of the most famous, contested,

and important books of all time.

Few books have been as contro-

versial or as historically signifi cant

as Charles Darwin’s On the Origin

of Species by Means of Natural Selec-

tion, or the Preservation of Favoured

Races in the Struggle for Life. Since the

moment it was released on Novem-

ber 24, 1859, Darwin’s masterwork

has been heralded for changing the

course of science and condemned for

its implied challenges to religion.

In Charles Darwin’s On the Ori-

gin of Species, author Michael Keller

and illustrator Nicolle Rager Fuller

introduce a new generation of read-

ers to the original text. Including sec-

tions about his pioneering research,

the book’s initial public reception,

his correspondence with other lead-

ing scientists, as well as the most

recent breakthroughs in evolution-

ary theory, this riveting, beautifully

rendered adaptation breathes new life

into Darwin’s seminal and still polar-

izing work.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Michael Keller, an award-winning

journalist and writer, has a bachelor

of science degree in wildlife ecology

from the University of Florida and a

master’s degree from the Columbia

University Graduate School of Jour-

nalism.

Nicolle Rager Fuller is a pro-

fessional illustrator, with a bachelor

of arts degree in biochemistry from

Lewis and Clark College and a gradu-

ate certifi cate in science illustration

from the University of California-

Santa Cruz. She lives in Washington,

DC, with her husband.

Cover design by Nicolle Rager Fuller

Charles Darwin’s

On theOrigin of Species

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20

When on board H.M.S. Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South America, and

in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent.

DARWIN’S APARTMENT AT NO. 41 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, LONDON

March 1837

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21

To my imagination it is far more satisfactory to look at such instincts as the young cuckoo ejecting its foster-brothers,

ants making slaves,

the larvae of Ichneumonidae feeding within the live bodies of

caterpillars,

not as specially endowed or created instincts, but as small consequences of one general law leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely,

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49

Many years ago, when comparing, and seeing others compare, the

birds from the closely neighbour-ing islands of the Galápagos

archipelago, one with another, and with those from the American mainland, I was much struck how entirely vague and arbitrary is the distinction between species

and varieties.

I look at the term “species” as one arbitrarily given, for the sake of convenience, to a set of individu-als closely resembling each other, and that it does not essentially diff er from the term “variety,”

which is given to less distinct and more fl uctuating forms.…

The passage from one stage of diff erence to another may, in many cases, be the simple result of the

nature of the organism and of the diff erent physical conditions to which it has long been exposed;

but with respect to the more important and adaptive charac-ters, the passage from one stage of diff erence to another, may be safely attributed to the cumula-tive action of natural selection.…

Hence I look at individual diff erences…as of the highest importance for us, as being the fi rst steps

towards such slight varieties as are barely thought worth recording in works on natural history.

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62

Can it…be thought improbable, seeing that variations useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that other variations useful in some way to each being in the great and

complex battle of life, should occur in the course of many successive generations?

If such do occur, can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born than can possibly survive) that indi-

viduals having any advantage, however slight, over others,

would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating

their kind?

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63

This preservation of favorable individual diff er-ences and variations, and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called Natural Selection,

or the Survival of the Fittest.

…It is diffi cult to avoid personifying

the word Nature; but I mean by nature, only the aggregate action and product

of many natural laws, and by laws the sequence of events

as ascertained by us.

On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed.

NATURAL SELECTION

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64

How fl eeting are the wishes and eff orts of man! How short his time! And consequently how poor will be his results, compared with those accumulated by

Nature during whole geological periods!

Man can act only on external and visible

characters;

As man can produce, and certainly has produced, a great

result by his methodical and unconscious means of selection, what may not natural selection

eff ect?

Nature, if I may be allowed to personify the natural preser-vation or survival of the fi ttest, cares noth-ing for appearances, except in so far as they are useful to

any being.

She can act on every internal organ, on every shade of consti-tutional diff erence, on the whole

machinery of life. Man selects only for his own good; Nature only for that of the being which she tends.

Can we wonder, then, that Nature’s productions should be far “truer” in character than man’s productions; that they should be infi nitely better adapted to the most complex

conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far higher workmanship?

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65

We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked

the lapse of ages,

and then so imperfect is our view into

long-past geologi-cal ages, that we see only that the forms of life are

now diff erent from what they formerly were.

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NORTH AMERICA PINE TREE

DISTRIBUTION

ISOLATION AND NATURAL SELECTION

75

Throughout a great and open area, not only will there be a better chance of

favourable variations, arising from the large number of individuals of the same

species there supported,

For within a confi ned area, with some place in the natural polity not perfectly occupied, all

the individuals varying in the right direction, though in diff erent degrees, will

tend to be preserved.

But if the area be large, its several districts will almost certainly present

diff erent conditions of life.

Isolation also is an important element in the modifi cation of species through natural

selection.

but the conditions of life are much more complex from the large number of already existing species; and if some of these many species become modifi ed and improved, others will have to be improved in a corresponding degree, or they

will be exterminated.

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96

And what of the complexities of the human eye? How can that possibly have evolved

through gradual changes when any missing component to the system prevents the

entire thing from working?

We may…fi nd aggregates of pigment-cells, apparently serving as organs of vision, without any

nerves. (These) are not capable of distinct vision, and serve only to distinguish light from darkness.

The simplest organ which can be called an eye consists of an optic nerve, surrounded by pigment-cells and covered by translucent skin, but without any lens or other refractive body. In this concentration of the rays we gain the fi rst and by far the most important

step towards the formation of a true, picture-forming eye; for we have only to place the naked extremity of the optic nerve…at the right distance from the concentrating apparatus,

and an image will be formed on it.

We must suppose that there is a power, represented by natural selection or the survival of the fi ttest, always

intently watching each slight alteration in the transparent layers; and carefully preserving each which, under varied

circumstances, in any way or in any degree, tends to produce a distincter image.

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131

…on this “law of the succession of types”—on “this wonderful relationship

in the same continent between the dead and the living.”

I was so much impressed with these facts that I strongly insisted…

The inhabitants of the world at each successive period in its history have beaten their predecessors in the race for life.

The succession of the same types of structure within the same areas during the later geological periods ceases to be mysterious, and is intelligible on

the principle of inheritance.

LAW OF THE SUCCESSION OF TYPES

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158

Professor Häckel…has recently brought his great knowledge and abilities to bear on what he calls phylogeny, or the lines of descent of all organic

beings. In drawing up the several series he trusts chiefl y to embryological characters, but receives aid from homologous and rudimentary organs, as well

as from the successive periods at which the various forms of life are believed to have fi rst appeared in

our geological formations....

We have seen that the members of the same class, independently of their habits of life, resemble each other in the general plan of their organisation. This resemblance is often expressed by the term “unity of type”; or by saying that the several parts and organs in the diff erent species of the class are homologous.... This is one of the most interesting departments of natural history,

and may almost be said to be its very soul.

What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include similar bones, in the same

relative positions?...

MOLE HUMAN ORCA BAT

ANATOMICAL SIMILARITIES

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