Question: who wrote the book the origin of species?
Answer: Charles Darwin

On the Origin of Species ( or more completely , On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection , or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life ) , published on 24 November 1859 , is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology . Darwin 's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection . It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution . Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research , correspondence , and experimentation .