Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace was a British naturalist who independently developed evolution by natural selection and helped establish biogeography through his studies of species distributions.

Malay Archipelago: A Southeast Asian island region spanning the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, and nearby islands. Wallace collected specimens across the region and used its fauna to study geographic variation.
Natural selection: The process by which heritable differences cause organisms to leave unequal numbers of offspring. Wallace independently recognized it as a mechanism that can adapt populations to their conditions.
Charles Darwin: An English naturalist who developed a theory of evolution by natural selection and wrote On the Origin of Species. Darwin and Wallace independently formulated natural selection, then presented their ideas jointly in 1858.
Biogeography: The study of the geographic distribution of organisms across space and time. Wallace’s comparative mapping of island faunas helped establish this field as a discipline.
On the Origin of Species: Charles Darwin’s 1859 book presenting evidence for evolution and explaining natural selection. Wallace’s independent theory helped prompt Darwin to publish this landmark work.
Amazon Basin: The drainage basin of the Amazon River, containing the world’s largest tropical rainforest. Wallace’s first major expedition there developed his skills in collecting and classifying tropical species.
Evolution: Change in heritable characteristics of populations across generations. Wallace’s theory explained how natural selection could drive evolutionary change.
Joseph Dalton Hooker: A British botanist and explorer who directed the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Hooker helped arrange the joint presentation of Wallace’s and Darwin’s writings in 1858.
Island biogeography: The study of how isolation, area, and colonization shape the diversity of island life. Wallace’s island comparisons showed how barriers and dispersal produce distinct faunas.
Wallace effect: The process by which natural selection against hybrids can strengthen reproductive isolation between populations. Wallace proposed that selection could help prevent interbreeding and reinforce species separation.

Linked from 30 pages