Complex sentence: Charles Darwin used the metaphor of a branching tree to describe the genealogical affinity of species sharing a common ancestor the recursive process of natural selection that leads to the diversification of life as "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful".
Split into simpler sentences: Charles Darwin used the metaphor of a branching tree to describe the genealogical affinity of species sharing a common ancestor. Darwin proposed that a recursive process of natural selection could explain much of the diversification of life as "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful".