"Alfred Wallace" redirects here. For the artist, see Alfred Wallis.
Alfred Russel Wallace
OM FRS
Wallace in 1895
Born
(1823-01-08)8 January 1823
Llanbadoc, Monmouthshire, Wales
Died
7 November 1913(1913-11-07) (aged 90)
Broadstone, Dorset, England
Known for
Co-discovery of natural selection
Pioneering work on biogeography
Wallace Line
Wallace effect
Spouse
Annie Mitten (m. 1866)
Children
Herbert, Violet, William
Awards
Royal Medal (1868)
Gold Medal of the Société de Géographie (1870)
Darwin Medal (1890)
Founder's Medal (1892)
Linnean Medal (1892)
Copley Medal (1908)
Darwin–Wallace Medal (Gold, 1908)
Order of Merit (1908)
Scientific career
Fields
Exploration
evolutionary biology
zoology
biogeography
social reform
Author abbrev. (botany)
Wallace
Alfred Russel WallaceOM FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English[1] naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator.[2] He independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his 1858 paper on the subject was published that year alongside extracts from Charles Darwin's earlier writings on the topic.[3][4] It spurred Darwin to set aside the "big species book" he was drafting and quickly write an abstract of it, which was published in 1859 as On the Origin of Species.
Wallace did extensive fieldwork, starting in the Amazon River basin. He then did fieldwork 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 was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species, and is sometimes called the "father of biogeography", or more specifically of zoogeography.[5]
Wallace was one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century, working on warning coloration in animals and reinforcement (sometimes known as the Wallace effect), a way that natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridisation. Wallace's 1904 book Man's Place in the Universe was the first serious attempt by a biologist to evaluate the likelihood of life on other planets. He was one of the first scientists to write a serious exploration of whether there was life on Mars.[6]
Aside from scientific work, he was a social activist, critical of what he considered to be an unjust social and economic system in 19th-century Britain. His advocacy of spiritualism and his belief in a non-material origin for the higher mental faculties of humans strained his relationship with other scientists. He was one of the first prominent scientists to raise concerns over the environmental impact of human activity. He wrote prolifically on both scientific and social issues; his account of his adventures and observations during his explorations in Southeast Asia, The Malay Archipelago, was first published in 1869. It continues to be both popular and highly regarded.
^Wallace, Alfred Russel (1905). My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions. Wellcome Library. London: Chapman & Hall, Ld. p. 34. I was the only Englishman who had lived some months alone in that country....
^Smith, Charles H. "Responses to Questions Frequently Asked About Alfred Russel Wallace". The Alfred Russel Wallace Page. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
^Cite error: The named reference tendency was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Darwin & Wallace 1858.
^Smith, Charles H. "Alfred Russel Wallace: Evolution of an Evolutionist Introduction". The Alfred Russel Wallace Page. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
^Smith, Charles H. "Is Mars Habitable?, by Alfred Russel Wallace". The Alfred Russel Wallace Page. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
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AlfredRusselWallace OM FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator...
The Wallace line or Wallace's line is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by the British naturalist AlfredRusselWallace and named by the English biologist...
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Shadow pp. 14. Smith, Charles H. "AlfredRusselWallace: Evolution of an Evolutionist Introduction". The AlfredRusselWallace Page hosted by Western Kentucky...
optimistic. An 1855 paper on the "introduction" of species, written by AlfredRusselWallace, claimed that patterns in the geographical distribution of living...
Rowbotham's method to allow for the effects of atmospheric refraction, AlfredRusselWallace found a curvature consistent with a spherical Earth. At the point...
in London for his activities in Southeast Asia. The naturalist AlfredRusselWallace was one of many visitors whose published work spoke of his hospitality...
Cottrell Watson (1804–1881), Alphonse de Candolle (1806–1893), AlfredRusselWallace (1823–1913), Philip Lutley Sclater (1829–1913) and other biologists...
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conceived independently by two British naturalists, Charles Darwin and AlfredRusselWallace, in the mid-19th century as an explanation for why organisms are...
races in the struggle for life." Darwin responded positively to AlfredRusselWallace's suggestion of using Spencer's new phrase "survival of the fittest"...
Bali, and Borneo, east of which lies the Wallace line, the realm boundary named after AlfredRusselWallace which separates Indomalaya from Australasia...
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itself as a sharp boundary line. The word ecotone was coined by AlfredRusselWallace, who first observed the abrupt boundary between two biomes in 1859...
insect-pathogenic fungus, discovered by the British naturalist AlfredRusselWallace in 1859, and currently found predominantly in tropical forest ecosystems...
arrange the simultaneous publication in 1858 of papers by Darwin and AlfredRusselWallace on natural selection, despite his personal religious qualms about...
first fully formed theory of evolution. In 1858 Charles Darwin and AlfredRusselWallace published a new evolutionary theory, explained in detail in Darwin's...
cornerstone of modern biology. The concept, published by Darwin and AlfredRusselWallace in a joint presentation of papers in 1858, was elaborated in Darwin's...
Pioneers of evolutionary biology read him, notably Charles Darwin and AlfredRusselWallace. Malthus's failure to predict the Industrial Revolution was a frequent...
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