The origin of the species (original title in English: On the Origin of Species) is a book of Charles Darwin published the 24 of November of 1859, considered one of the precursors works of the scientific literature and the foundation of the theory of the biology evolutionary

The full title of the first edition was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life (The origin of species through natural selection, or the preservation of favored breeds in the struggle for life). In its sixth edition of 1872, the short title was modified to The Origin of Species.

In this work Charles Darwin (1809-1882) proposed the mechanism of natural selection as an explanation for the origin of species. Making a parallel with the artificial selection made by humans in plants or livestock, Darwin created the concept of natural selection, in which nature selects the most suitable populations for survival in a given environment and discards the less suitable.