Download Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace
Born:
Died:
January 8, 1823
United Kingdom
November 7, 1913 (aged 90)
Broadstone, Dorset, England
Nationality:
British
Fields:
Exploration, evolutionary
biology, zoology, biogeography, and
social reform
Known for:
Co-discovery of natural selection
Pioneering work on biogeography
Wallace Line
Wallace Effect
He was a British naturalist, explorer,
geographer, anthropologist, and
biologist.
He is best known for independently
conceiving the theory of evolution
through natural selection; his paper on
the subject was jointly published with
some of Charles Darwin's writings in
1858.
Natural selection is the
differential survival and reproduction
of individuals due to differences in
phenotype. It is a key of mechanism
of evolution, the change in heritable
traits of a population over time.
Charles Darwin popularised the term
"natural selection"; he compared it
with artificial selection (selective
breeding).
Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first
in the Amazon River basin and then in the
Malay Archipelago, where he identified the
faunal divide now termed the Wallace Line,
which separates the Indonesian archipelago
into two distinct parts; a western portion in
which the animals are largely of Asian
origin, and an eastern portion where the
fauna reflect Australasia.
He made many other contributions
to the development of evolutionary
theory besides being co-discoverer of
natural selection. These include the
concept of warning colouration in
animals and the Wallace effect, a
hypothesis on how natural selection
could contribute to speciation by
encouraging the development of
barriers against hybridisation.
Unlike Charles Darwin, Wallace
began his career as a travelling
naturalist already believing in
the transmutation of species.
He was considered the 19th
century's leading expert on the
geographical distribution of animal
species and called "Father of
Biogeography".