Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, and biologist who independently conceived the theory of evolution by natural selection, prompting Charles Darwin to publish his own long-developed work. [1] Through years of fieldwork in the Amazon and the Malay Archipelago, Wallace became a leading authority on the geographical distribution of animals and is regarded as a founder of biogeography. [2] The faunal boundary he identified in Southeast Asia is still known as the Wallace Line. [1]
Early life and education
Wallace was born on 8 January 1823 in Usk, in Monmouthshire, Wales, into a family of modest means. [1] Financial difficulties cut short his formal schooling, and in his teens he trained and worked as a land surveyor and later as a schoolteacher. His practical work outdoors and his self-directed reading in natural history and geology fostered a lasting interest in the variety and distribution of living things. [1]
Expeditions and fieldwork
In 1848 Wallace travelled to Brazil with the entomologist Henry Walter Bates to collect specimens in the Amazon basin. Much of the material he amassed was lost when his ship caught fire on the return voyage in 1852. [2] Undeterred, he set out in 1854 for the Malay Archipelago, in present-day Malaysia and Indonesia, where over eight years he gathered more than a hundred thousand specimens and made observations that would shape his scientific ideas. [2] His account of these travels, The Malay Archipelago (1869), became one of the most widely read works of scientific exploration of the nineteenth century. [1]
Natural selection
While working in the field, Wallace independently arrived at a theory of evolution driven by natural selection. In 1858 he sent an essay outlining his ideas to Charles Darwin, who had been developing similar conclusions for many years. [1] The two men's work was presented jointly to the Linnean Society of London in July 1858, prompting Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species the following year. [2] Wallace remained a committed defender of evolutionary theory, though he later differed from Darwin on certain questions, including the origin of the human mind. [3]
Biogeography and the Wallace Line
Wallace is widely regarded as a founder of biogeography, the study of how species are distributed across the globe. [2] He identified a sharp faunal boundary running through the Malay Archipelago that separates animals of Asian origin from those of Australian origin; this division is now known as the Wallace Line in his honour. [1] His analyses of animal distribution influenced later thinking about environmental and geological change and remain important to ecology and evolutionary biology. [3]
Later life and legacy
In his later years Wallace wrote extensively on scientific and social questions and received numerous honours, including the Copley Medal, the Royal Medal, and appointment to the Order of Merit. [1] He died on 7 November 1913 at Broadstone, Dorset. [1] Long overshadowed by Darwin, he is today recognised as a co-discoverer of natural selection and one of the foremost naturalists of his age. [3]
