When Charles Darwin laid out his theory of natural selection in 1859, little could he have imagined that, a good 150 years later, this cornerstone of evolutionary theory might help us form a mental picture of what alien life looks like. But that's precisely how a group of researchers from Oxford University have done: In a research paper called "Darwin's Aliens," they've applied Darwin's theory to alien life, positing that aliens--like humans--adapt to their environment, undergo natural selection, and move from simple to complex life forms. And, by the end, they could plausibly look something like a "colony of Ewoks from Star Wars or the Octomite" pictured above.
You can read "Darwin's Aliens" in the International Journal of Astrobiology. It's published on the Cambridge Core website.
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