Earth teems with a staggering variety of animals, including 9,000 kinds of birds, 28,000 types of fish, and more than 350,000 species of beetles. What explains this explosion of living creatures—1.4 million different species discovered so far, with perhaps another 50 million to go?

The source of life’s endless forms was a profound mystery until Charles Darwin brought forth his revolutionary idea of natural selection. But Darwin’s radical insights raised as many questions as they answered.

The documentary film What Darwin Never Knew offers answers to riddles that Darwin couldn’t explain. Scientific breakthroughs are linking the enigmas of evolution to another of nature’s great mysteries, the development of the embryo.

A campus screening of the film on Wednesday, October 17, will take viewers on a journey from the Galapagos Islands to the Arctic, and from the explosion of animal forms half a billion years ago to the research labs of today, where scientists are finally beginning to crack nature’s biggest secrets at the genetic level.

The Windsor/Essex County Atheist Society presents the screening at 7 p.m. in room 255, Dillon Hall. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; admission is by donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.