The book “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” was authored by
- A.Charles Darwin
- B.Carolus Linnaeus
- C.Barbara McClintock
- D.Copernicus
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Charles Darwin. The English naturalist published this book in London on 24 November 1859, setting out his theory of evolution by natural selection.
Darwin gathered much of his evidence during the five-year voyage of HMS Beagle (1831–36), especially from the finches and tortoises of the Galapagos Islands. The book argued that living things produce more offspring than can survive, that individuals vary, and that those with useful variations survive and pass them on, so species change slowly over many generations. Alfred Russel Wallace reached the same idea independently, and their joint papers were read in 1858. The phrase "survival of the fittest" was coined by Herbert Spencer and adopted by Darwin later.
B is wrong because Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, gave the system of binomial nomenclature in Systema Naturae. C is wrong because Barbara McClintock discovered jumping genes (transposons) in maize. D is wrong because Nicolaus Copernicus proposed the Sun-centred model of the universe.
Exam tip: Darwin, Origin of Species, 1859, HMS Beagle, natural selection; Lamarck, inheritance of acquired characters.
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