Inspired by the chronicles of earlier and contemporary travelling naturalists, including Alexander von Humboldt, Ida Laura Pfeiffer, Charles Darwin and especially William Henry Edwards, Wallace decided that he too wanted to travel abroad as a naturalist. [18]
Full Answer
How did Wallace contribute to the study of evolution?
The theory of evolution by natural selection became known as Darwin’s theory. Though Wallace’s contributions to the study of evolution were considerable, they are often forgotten. Wallace spent eight years studying and collecting biological specimens in Southeast Asia. During that time, he gathered over 125,000 specimens.
What did Alfred Wallace discover in 1858?
In 1858, though, Wallace would make his most significant move. While studying in Malaysia, he came to a conclusion that, unbeknownst to him, Darwin had been working out separately for some twenty years. He found that, through natural selection, species change and adapt over time to accommodate their environments.
What did Alfred Russel Wallace do for geography?
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was one of the nineteenth century’s leading naturalists and explorers. He co-discovered with Charles Darwin the theory of evolution by natural selection, and he is one of the founders of the modern field of biogeography. 2) Why is Wallace important?
How did Robert Owen influence Alfred Lord Wallace?
There Wallace was introduced to some of the most radical working-class ideas of the day at the London Mechanic’s Institute. Young Alfred became enamored of the ideas of Robert Owen. Owen blamed the criminal behavior of the lower classes on the politicians and the clergy who aided and abetted them.
How did Wallace come up with his theory?
Wallace noticed a striking pattern in the distribution of animals around the archipelago. He proposed an imaginary line dividing the region in two parts. Later known as Wallace's Line, this marked the boundary between the animal life of the Australian region and that of Asia.
What inspired Alfred Wallace?
Inspired by reading about organic evolution in Robert Chambers's controversial Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), unemployed, and ardent in his love of nature, Wallace and his naturalist friend Henry Walter Bates, who had introduced Wallace to entomology four years earlier, traveled to Brazil in 1848 ...
Who was Charles Darwin influenced by?
Sigmund FreudFrancis DarwinFriedrich NietzscheB. F. SkinnerRichard DawkinsErnst HaeckelCharles Darwin/Influenced
How did Malthus influence Darwin's and Wallace's thinking?
During his voyage on the Beagle, Darwin made many observations that helped him develop his Theory of Evolution. Thomas Malthus' work helped inspire Darwin to refine natural selection by stating a reason for meaningful competition between members of the same species. He discovered things change drastically over time.
What was Alfred Wallace's theory?
In 1889, Wallace wrote the book Darwinism, which explained and defended natural selection. In it, he proposed the hypothesis that natural selection could drive the reproductive isolation of two varieties by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridisation.
What was the difference between Darwin and Wallace's theory?
Darwin argued that human evolution could be explained by natural selection, with sexual selection as a significant supplementary principle. Wallace always had doubts about sexual selection, and ultimately concluded that natural selection alone was insufficient to account for a set of uniquely human characteristics.
How did Lamarck influence Darwin's thinking?
Jean Baptiste Lamarck was a botanist and zoologist who was one of the first to propose that humans evolved from a lower species through adaptations over time. His work inspired Darwin's ideas of natural selection. Lamarck also came up with an explanation for vestigial structures.
How did Lyell and Malthus influence Darwin?
The fossils he found helped convince him of that. From Lyell, Darwin saw that Earth and its life were very old; there had been enough time for evolution to produce the great diversity of life Darwin had observed. From Malthus, Darwin knew that populations could grow faster than their resources.
How did Georges Cuvier influence Darwin?
Much of Cuvier's research produced knowledge that would ultimately support Darwin's theory of evolution, although Cuvier himself did not realize it. He was the first to demonstrate that the different strata of rock in the Paris basin each had its own mammal fauna.
Who was Malthus influenced by?
Charles DarwinJohn Maynard KeynesAlfred Russel WallaceHerman DalyEdward Murray EastThomas Robert Malthus/Influenced
How did Linnaeus influence Darwin?
Linnaeus did two things that changed our understanding of humans: He decided man was an animal like any other, and put Homo sapiens in the animal kingdom, alongside other animals. This paved the way for Darwin's theory of evolution a century later.
How did Alfred Russel Wallace influence Darwin?
Alfred Russel Wallace was a naturalist who independently proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection. A great admirer of Charles Darwin, Wallace produced scientific journals with Darwin in 1858, which prompted Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species the following year.
How did Alfred Wallace influence Darwin?
After a variety of zoological discoveries, Wallace proposed a theory of evolution which matched the unpublished ideas Darwin had kept secret for nearly 20 years. This encouraged Darwin to collect his scientific ideas and collaborate with Wallace. They published their scientific ideas jointly in 1858.
Why is Alfred Wallace the father of biogeography?
Wallace has been called 'the father of biogeography' due to his contributions to the study of the geographic distributions of animals, and his deep understanding of the importance of islands in speciation and endemism.
Who was the best known for making the thought of evolution?
The theory of natural selection was explored by 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin. Natural selection explains how genetic traits of a species may change over time. This may lead to speciation, the formation of a distinct new species.
Why is Alfred Wallace known as the father of biogeography?
Wallace is sometimes called the "father of biogeography" for his work in correlating the distribution of animal species with geography, both current and through long periods of geological change. Wallace had his own evolutionary theories distinct from Darwin and was considered a major evolutionary thinker of his day.
What did Wallace say about the special attributes of humanity?
At one time part of the Darwin camp, Wallace committed “treason” when he suggested in 1869 that the special attributes of humanity (ability to reason abstractly, ability to create and enjoy music, humor, etc.) were the result of some Overruling Intelligence. Darwin was appalled.
Why is Alfred Wallace important?
First, he co-discovered natural selection and prompted Darwin to finally rush his Origin of Species to press. Second, Wallace is perhaps one of the modern world’s greatest scientific adventurer explorers. When Wallace returned from his eight-year exploration of Southeast Asia and ...
How do historians view Wallace?
By and large historians have tended to view Wallace through a rather Whiggish lens. That is, they tend to interpret Wallace’s position unsympathetically and with a presentist eye. Since all biological history is filtered through the paradigm of the victor, Wallace is made to seem idiosyncratic and opposed to scientific progress. There are a few others, equally unhelpful, who attempt to strip all theism and teleology out of Wallace and have him out-Darwin Darwin. Neither examine Wallace in his entirety but rather skew the resources they use to support their a priori preferences. That said, biographies by Martin Fichman and Ross A. Slotten published in 2004 ( see Resources page) have done much to clarify the life of this complex historic figure in the history of science.
Where was Alfred Wallace born?
Alfred Russel Wallace was born near the English/Welsh border town of Usk on January 8, 1823 to Mary Ann and Thomas Vere Wallace. Thomas, though trained in the law apparently never practiced, leaving the family struggling financially and with unstable housing. By 1836 Thomas removed Alfred from the local school to go off to London with his brother John, six years his senior and intent on serving as an apprentice carpenter with a London builder. There Wallace was introduced to some of the most radical working-class ideas of the day at the London Mechanic’s Institute. Young Alfred became enamored of the ideas of Robert Owen. Owen blamed the criminal behavior of the lower classes on the politicians and the clergy who aided and abetted them. Owen called for improved working conditions, education for the working youth, and the inculcation of a sound work ethic and moral principles at the workplace. These ideas would never completely leave Alfred. After some years as an apprentice land surveyor with his oldest brother William, Wallace began a self-study of botany with an inexpensive field guide. Wallace expanded his interests to include insects when he met Henry Walter Bates at Leicester. They were both soon bitten by the “bug” of adventure (figuratively and literally) and in spring of 1848 they left England to investigate the flora and fauna of South America. Wallace returned to England in October of 1852. After a few years he again embarked upon another expedition for rare specimens to bring back and sell to an eager British museum market and wealthy private collectors. This time he ventured to the Malay Archipelago. Having read Robert Chamber’s Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation in 1844, Wallace was determined to unlock the mystery of transmutation. He had failed to do so while in the Amazon River Basin, but in the Malay Archipelago, while on the island of Gilolo, he discovered the principle of natural selection during an attack of malarial fever. When Wallace finally posted his letter “On the Tendency of Varieties to depart from the Original Type” to Darwin on March 9, 1858, from the Island of Ternate, Wallace’s seminal statement on natural selection became forever known as the “Ternate Letter.” With twelve years of field experience and having amassed a staggering collection of 125,660 specimens from the Malay Archipelago, and some 10,000 known specimens from South America (the latter total is incomplete as many of Wallace’s specimens were lost at sea on his South American return voyage), Wallace’s letter made him famous as the co-discover of natural selection. At one time part of the Darwin camp, Wallace committed “treason” when he suggested in 1869 that the special attributes of humanity (ability to reason abstractly, ability to create and enjoy music, humor, etc.) were the result of some Overruling Intelligence. Darwin was appalled. Yet Wallace continued to make major scientific contributions, especially in the field of biogeography. Wallace also continued to develop his ideas about intelligent design in nature in his books Darwinism (1889), Man’s Place in the Universe (1903), and his grand evolutionary synthesis, The World of Life (1910). Wallace died at his home “Old Orchard” at Broadstone on Friday, November 7, 1913, at 9:25 in the morning. While Darwin’s X Club forces kept a sure and certain distance from Wallace after 1869, his continued contributions to biology earned him recognition. In 1868 he received the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal. In 1892 he received the Linnean Society’s Gold Medal. In 1908 he was awarded the prestigious Order of Merit and the Royal Society’s Copley Medal. At his death, Wallace had become a Fellow of the Royal Society. The Darwin-Wallace Medal, which the medal’s namesake received on the fiftieth anniversary of the reading of their joint papers (July 1, 1908), is still given by the Linnean Society.
What is the chief implication of forgetting Wallace?
The chief implication of forgetting Wallace is that all evolution becomes one-dimensional: materialistic and reductionist. Wallace’s theory of intelligent evolution, an evolution imbued with purposive design, is a very different kind of proposition. The other serious implication of a Darwin-only evolution is that, unfortunately, as the term evolution is now synonymous with science, science becomes synecdoche for Darwinism. Science then becomes not simply a search after truth in the natural world but rather a search after only those truths amenable to methodological naturalism, the philosophy that undergirds Darwinism (see question # 2).
What is Wallace's idea of ID?
Wallace’s elaborate rebuttal to the Copernican Principle, the idea that the earth is an inconsequential speck in the universe without special meaning or significance in Man’s Place in the Universe, and his detailed representations of design in the complexity of the cell and similar examples found in The World of Life clearly anticipate many similar arguments within the ID movement. Wallace came to his ideas through inference and logic; today ID theorists have modern developments in information theory and the DNA code that have allowed for the advancement of ID in ways Wallace could never have imagined.
Why is Wallace's book The Malay Archipelago important?
A third reason for Wallace’s importance is his work in biogeography.
How did Darwin think life on Earth changed?
Lyell believed the Earth developed through a series of slow changes that built up over time. Darwin thought this was the way that life on Earth also changed. He theorized that small adaptations accumulated over long periods of time to change a species and give it more favorable adaptations for natural selection to work on.
What did Malthus' ideas seem to support?
Malthus's ideas seemed to support all of the studying Darwin had done on the Galapagos finches and their beak adaptations. Only individuals that had favorable adaptations would survive long enough to pass down those traits to their offspring. This is the cornerstone of natural selection. 03.
How did Darwin use the Comte de Buffon?
The Comte de Buffon's writings were used as evidence for Darwin while he wrote about his findings and presented them to other scientists and the public.
What was Charles Darwin's theory of uniformitarianism?
His theory of uniformitarianism was a great influence on Charles Darwin. Lyell theorized that geologic processes that were around at the beginning of time were the same ones that were happening in the present as well and that they worked the same way.
Who was the most influential person to Darwin?
Thomas Malthus was arguably the person who was most influential to Darwin. Even though Malthus was not a scientist, he was an economist and understood populations and how they grow. Darwin was fascinated by the idea that the human population was growing faster than food production could sustain.
Who was Lyell's friend?
Lyell was actually a good friend of Captain Robert FitzRoy who piloted the HMS Beagle when Darwin sailed to the Galapagos Islands and South America. FitzRoy introduced Darwin to Lyell's ideas and Darwin studied the geological theories as they sailed.
Who was the first person to invent calculus?
Georges Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon was first and foremost a mathematician who helped invent calculus. While most of his works focused on statistics and probability, he did influence Charles Darwin with his thoughts on how life on Earth originated and changed over time.
What are the emotions in the movie Inside Out?
The movie Inside Out portrays 5 major emotions as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear. The movie shows that our emotions are vital in decision-making. Emotions can be triggered by an internal and external stimuli which shows that emotions are also related to our core memories. We established our habits through the learnings from our past experiences that were based on emotions. Our emotions affect the right frontal cortex which includes the limbic system – the amygdala and hippocampus as the center processors. These learned emotions became patterns that influence us on how we think and perceive things. What the mind conceives, the body achieves.
What does it mean to be surprised?
Surprise is a physiological startle or shock that is unexpected. It can be positive, negative and even neutral. You feel surprised when your family and friends visit you after a long time, or when you received a gift from someone unexpectedly. Contempt is an ill-feeling or less regard to another inferior person.
How many emotions are there in the human mind?
Let’s try to focus on how emotions can actually influence our thinking. There are 7 universal major emotions according to Alison Alverson which are also based on the Psychologist, Paul Eckman. These emotions are happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, surprise, and contempt.
What is the emotion of disgust?
Disgust is an intense emotion that can be triggered by unpleasant smell or taste or even immoral acts. You feel disgusted with exotic foods or hideous crimes. Anger is a powerful emotion that includes aggression, hostility, and frustration. You feel angry when someone educates you in a condescending manner.
What are the three elements of emotion?
Emotions can be characterized by three major elements: physiological arousal like increased heart rate, sweating, flushing, psychological appraisal or expressive behaviors like our motivation, personality, and temperament, and lastly, subjective or personal experiences like what’s making you angry might be different to another individual.
What is the difference between mood and emotion?
Emotion is a fleeting experience with intense mental and physiological feeling states caused by an unusual stimuli, while mood is more prolonged and less intense, and also refers to the positive and negative feelings of our day to day experiences. Our emotions influence our mood, decision making and behavior. ...
What does it mean to be sad?
Sadness is characterized by gloomy feeling, grief, hopelessness, and dampened mood. You feel sad when you see a homeless person or a loved one die. Fear plays an important role in survival where it can be activated by an abrupt and immense threat.
