Question: who is credited with linking characteristics of living organisms to past ancestors
Answer: Universal common descent through an evolutionary process was first proposed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species ( 1859 ) , which concluded : `` There is grandeur in this view of life , with its several powers , having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one ; and that , whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity , from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been , and are being , evolved .