Charles Darwin`s On the Origin Of Species

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Science/Graphic Novel
Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death,
Michael Keller, an award-winning
the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely,
journalist and writer, has a bachelor
the production of the higher animals directly follows. There is
of science degree in wildlife ecology
from the University of Florida and a
a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been
master’s degree from the Columbia
originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms
University Graduate School of Jour-
or into one . . . and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on
nalism.
Nicolle Rager Fuller is a pro-
according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning
endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been,
fessional illustrator, with a bachelor
and are being, evolved.
of arts degree in biochemistry from
—Charles Darwin, from On the Origin of Species
Lewis and Clark College and a graduate certificate in science illustration
from the University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz. She lives in Washington,
DC, with her husband.
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Michael Keller
Illustrated by Nicolle Rager Fuller
ISBN: 978-1-60529-697-5
9 781605 296975
Cover design by Nicolle Rager Fuller
OriginOfSpeciesDJ_spot.indd 1
TCD 151611
EAN
51999
Charles Darwin’s
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-
A G R A PHIC ADA P TATION
versial or as historically significant
as Charles Darwin’s On the Origin
of Species by Means of Natural Selec-
COVER TK
tion, or the Preservation of Favoured
Races in the Struggle for Life. Since the
moment it was released on November 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 Origin of Species, author Michael Keller
and illustrator Nicolle Rager Fuller
introduce a new generation of readers to the original text. Including sections about his pioneering research,
the book’s initial public reception,
his correspondence with other leading scientists, as well as the most
recent breakthroughs in evolutionary theory, this riveting, beautifully
rendered adaptation breathes new life
into Darwin’s seminal and still polar-
Reprinted from Charles Darwin On the Origin Of Species: A
Graphic Adaptation by Michael Keller. Copyright 2009 by
Michael Keller. Permission granted by Rodale Inc.
izing work.
Michael Keller
ILLUSTR ATED BY NICOLLE R AGER FULLER
8/20/09 11:19:22 AM
March 1837
DARWIN’S APARTMENT AT
NO. 41 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, LONDON
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.
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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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Many years ago, when comparing,
and seeing others compare, the
birds from the closely neighbouring 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 individuals closely resembling each other,
and that it does not essentially
diff er from the term “variety,”
which is given to less distinct and
more fluctuating 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 characters, the passage from one stage
of diff erence to another, may be
safely attributed to the cumulative action of natural selection.…
Hence I look at individual diff erences…as of the
highest importance for us, as being the first steps
towards such slight varieties as are barely thought
worth recording in works on natural history.
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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 individuals having any advantage,
however slight, over others,
would have the best chance of
surviving and of procreating
their kind?
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On the other hand, we may feel sure
that any variation in the least degree
injurious would be rigidly destroyed.
NATURAL SELECTION
This preservation of favorable individual diff erences and variations, and the destruction of those
which are injurious, I have called Natural Selection,
or the Survival of the Fittest.
…It is difficult 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.
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How fl eeting are the wishes and efforts of man! How
short his time! And consequently how poor will be
his results, compared with those accumulated by
Nature during whole geological periods!
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?
Man can act only on
external and visible
characters;
She can act on every internal
organ, on every shade of constitutional 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.
Nature, if I may be
allowed to personify
the natural preservation or survival of
the fittest, cares nothing for appearances,
except in so far as
they are useful to
any being.
Can we wonder, then, that Nature’s productions should be far “truer” in character than
man’s productions; that they should be infinitely better adapted to the most complex
conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far higher workmanship?
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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 geological ages, that we
see only that the
forms of life are
now diff erent
from what they
formerly were.
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Isolation also is an important
element in the modification
of species through natural
selection.
ISOLATION
AND
NATURAL SELECTION
For within a confined
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.
NORTH A MERICA
PINE TREE
DISTRIBUTION
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,
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
modified and improved, others
will have to be improved in a
corresponding degree, or they
will be exterminated.
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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…find 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 first 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 fittest, 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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LAW
I was so much impressed with these
facts that I strongly insisted…
OF THE
SUCCESSION
OF
TYPES
…on this “law of the succession of
types”—on “this wonderful relationship
in the same continent between the
dead and the living.”
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.
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ANATOMICAL SIMILARITIES
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
chiefly 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 first 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.
MOLE
HUMAN
ORCA
BAT
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?...
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