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     Darwin's great work, The Origin of Species, is now generally accepted as one of the most important books ever written. But when it first came out in 1859, it was bitterly criticized by scientists and laymen.
     Much of the oppositions to The Origin of Species arose from Darwin's claim that all living creatures, including man, are somehow related. Many people were outraged by the suggestion that man shared a common ancestor with animals such as apes and monkeys. They attacked Darwin for saying that man has descended from the apes. But Darwin never actually said this. He believed that modern men and modern apes have both descended from the same ancestor. But at some time in prehistory, millions of years ago, men and apes began to develop separately, and ever since have continued to take on different characteristics Today, more than 90 years after Darwin's death, this is the opinion which scientists continue to hold.
     In his works, Darwin described the possession of life from its earliest forms.First came the invertebrates — creatures without a backbone The invertebrates evolved into fish; fish into amphibians; amphibians into reptiles, and reptiles into birds and mammals.
     Fossil remains found after his death show that Darwin was right. Perhaps the most amazing fact about his theory is that he managed to work it out with the aid of only a few fossil discoveries. Fossil remains were not the only information which we now possess but Darwin lacked. He did not know that apes have the same diseases as men; nor that they and men have the same kind of blood. Nor did he know about the modern uses of radiation which enable scientists to tell the age of fossil remains and so estimate the speed at which evolution has taken place.
     Lacking all this information, Darwin had to rely on other branches of science. One of them was comparative anatomy（解剖学）: the science which compares the physical make-up of different species. He observed that all vertebrates--amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals — possess forelimbs which are basically the same. The limbs may be used for swimming, flying, or walking, but they are all built on the same plan. They contain one bone in the upper arm, two bones in the forearm, several bones in the wrist, and five bones in the hand with finger joints attached.
     Darwin marveled at this similarity between such widely differing species. "What can be more curious," he asked, “the fact that the hand of a man formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of a horse, and the wings of a bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern?" From the extraordinary fact, he drew the correct conclusion that different species share the same characteristics because they are descended from the same ancestor. Then, they took on the separate characteristics which helped them most in the struggle to survive in their own local environments.