Alfred Russel Wallace was a notable English naturalist, evolutionist, geographer, anthropologist, social critic, and the co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution and natural selection. Wallace was born 8 January at Usk in Monmouthshire, England.
In he met Henry Walter Bates, already an accomplished entomologist, whose collections and collecting activities captured Wallace's interest. At first they worked as a team, but after a couple of years they split up. Wallace centered his activities in the middle Amazon and Rio Negro regions. Wallace left South America in due to ill health, while Bates remained for several more years.
Unfortunately, the brig on which Wallace was sailing to England caught fire and sank, taking almost all of his possessions and collections with it.
Alfred Russel Wallace is far from a household name, but he changed the world. Recovering from a bout of malaria on the remote Indonesian island of Halmahera, the young British biologist came up with an idea that would transform humanity's view of itself: he worked out the theory of natural selection. Wallace wrote down his idea and sent it to Charles Darwin, who had been contemplating a similar theory of evolution for more than a decade. Both versions were read to members of the Linnean Society in Today Darwin is the man who gets the lion's share of the credit for a theory that provides the mechanism to explain how a species can be slowly transformed into another.
Wallace has been forgotten. But this week curators at the Natural History Museum, London, will launch Wallace , a project aimed at righting this wrong. On Thursday, Wallace's portrait — which has been kept for years in a storeroom — will be hung beside the grand statue of Darwin that overlooks the museum's main hall. Wallace's entire correspondence will also be put online.
The museum's ceremony marks the beginning of its Wallace programme, which will mark the centenary of Wallace's death and aims to bring him back to the public's attention.
Image Alfred Wallace British naturalist, Alfred Wallace co-developed the theory of natural selection and evolution with Charles Darwin, who is most often credited with the idea. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. Media If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer.
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Educational Resources in Your Inbox. Educational Resources in Your Inbox Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Most famously, he had the revolutionary idea of evolution by natural selection entirely independently of Charles Darwin.
Wallace was born in in Usk now in Monmouthshire. After leaving school he worked at his brother's surveying firm until he was hired as a teacher in Leicester in That year he formed a friendship with a local man and keen naturalist, Henry Walter Bates. Bates introduced Wallace to the methods and delights of collecting beetles. Four years later the pair headed for the Amazon, having been inspired by stories of discovery in the New World and Oceania. Wallace and Bates arrived at the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil in Their aim was to investigate the origin of species.
They financed the trip by collecting specimens and selling them. After a short time exploring together, the two men split up in order to cover more ground. Wallace went north by river, collecting in areas previously unexplored by European naturalists. He amassed thousands of animal specimens, mostly birds, beetles and butterflies. After more than four years collecting, Wallace sailed back to England but disaster struck on the high seas.
The ship caught fire in the Atlantic and sank, along with virtually all his specimens and field notes. Fortunately the crew and passengers were rescued by a passing ship. Two of Wallace's drawings of Amazonian fish, which he managed to rescue when his ship caught fire. Undaunted, Wallace started planning his next expedition almost immediately.
Within a year he left England again and set sail for the Far East. Wallace began his travels through the Malay Archipelago now Malaysia and Indonesia in Over a period of eight years, he accumulated an astonishing , specimens, including more than 5, species new to western science.
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