Alfred Russell Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace was a scientist who helped establish Modern Evolutionary Theory. At the time that Darwin was studying in the mid-1800s, Wallace conducted his own independent studies within Indonesia and the Southeast Asian area. Like Darwin, he came to an identical conclusion within an entirely separate system which follows the tenets of natural selection: speciation derives from “imperfect ancestors”, evolution results from the fitness and reproduction of a variation within a population, and evolution is a heritable, incremental, and frequent process. Wallace recorded these observations in a scientific paper that he asked Darwin to review. Both proceeded to present their findings jointly, giving way to the theory of evolution by natural selection.

emergence of modern evolutionary theory and natural selection

• charles darwin: “father” of modern evolutionary theory; lived in england, dominated by western christianity conventionalism (church of england)
  • hms beagle 1832-1836 naturalist, galapagos (oceanic)
• separate systems evidence
  • speciation from ancestors, nodes, taxa; no fixed species
  • changes occur when a mutation/variation in a population is reproduced
  • merit of “success” by genetic reproduction; beneficial versions are typical
  • heritable traits and incremental frequency (gradualism/uni)