Evolution by Natural Selection (1859)

Evolution by Natural Selection is the most robust framework for explaining biological complexity. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's simultaneous 1859 theory provided the first coherent, evidence-based account of biodiversity, supported by over 99% of peer-reviewed biological literature. This discovery outperforms #2, the Big Bang, in direct explanatory power for biological phenomena, with fossil and genetic evidence consistently confirming natural selection's mechanisms.