Final answer:
The statement that Charles Darwin described the laws of inheritance in 'On the Origin of Species' is false. Darwin provided evidence for natural selection and evolution but could not explain genetic inheritance, which was later described by Gregor Mendel.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that Charles Darwin accurately described the laws of inheritance in his landmark book, On the Origin of Species, is false. While Darwin proposed the concept of natural selection and provided evidence for evolution, he did not have a scientific understanding of genetics and the laws of inheritance. These laws were discovered by Gregor Mendel and only became widely understood in the early 20th century, long after the publication of Darwin's work. In On the Origin of Species, Darwin described the process of natural selection and how variations within species are selected for over time. However, he could not explain the mechanism of how traits were passed down from parents to offspring. It was Mendel who described how traits are inherited according to specific laws, which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance. Natural selection is the mechanism that Darwin and Alfred Wallace independently discovered. The principle that characteristics of organisms are inherited and that offspring vary among each other in their characteristics is crucial for natural selection to take place, leading to evolution over time.