Caricature of Darwinian evolution. Early 20th century caricature of Darwinian evolution, showing a monkey climbing down a man and offering him an apple that is lying on the floor. This parodies the evolutionary concept of humans, monkeys and apes having a common ancestor. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) proposed in 1859 that such evolution occurred by natural selection, a theory that had far-reaching theological implications. The apple could represent fruit from the tree of knowledge, which is the forbidden fruit in the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Artwork from 1903, by the French caricaturist Benjamin Rabier.