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Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace (January 8, 1823-November 7, 1913) was a British naturalist and biologist.
Wallace was born at Usk, Monmouthshire. He attended grammar school in Hertford, but left when his family lost their remaining property. He worked for his older brother William in his surveying business, and between 1840 and 1843 spent his time surveying in the west of England and Wales. In 1844 he was hired as a master at the Collegiate School in Leicester. In 1845 his brother William died and Wallace returned to run the surveying business.
In 1848, Wallace together with another naturalist, Henry Walter Bates (whom he met in Leicester), left for Brazil to collect specimens in the Amazon Rainforest. Unfortunately, a large part of his collection got lost when his ship caught fire when he returned to Britain in 1852.
From 1854 to 1862, he travelled through the 'Malay Archipelago' or East Indies (now Malaysia and Indonesia), to collect specimens and study nature. One of his better known discoveries here is the gliding tree frog Rhacophorus nigropalmatus, Wallace's flying frog.
His studies, eventually published in 1869 as The Malay Archipelago, included the key influence of Thomas Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population, and led to his independent arrival at a theory of evolution similar to Charles Darwin's. Darwin at that time had not published his theory, but when Wallace sent him an essay concerning his theory, "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type" (1858), Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker advised Darwin that he should publish his own thoughts at the same time. On July 1, 1858, both papers were presented to the Linnean Society of London. Wallace was the first to propose a "geography" of animal species, and as such is considered one of the precursors of ecology and biogeography.
Among the many awards presented to Wallace were the Order of Merit (1908), the Royal Society's Copley Medal (1908), the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal (1892) and the Linnean Society's Gold Medal (1892).
Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide")
1 The Wallace Line
1 External links
2 Reference
3 Books about Wallace
4 See also
The Wallace Line
Wallace noted that a line seemed to run through the Malay Archipelago, between Borneo and the Celebes and east of Bali. This line, which is now known as the Wallace Line separates the continents of Asia and Australia zoologically. West of the line mostly species are found that are related to Asiatic species, to the east mostly species that are related to Australian species.
In the mid 20th Century, geological studies of plate tectonics showed there is an Indo-Australian plate that has the Wallace Line as a boundary, resulting in a large drop in the sea floor at precisely the same point. This means that it has never been possible for a land bridge to form in the region, hence the zoological distribution.
One interesting note is that many (but by no means all) bird species also observe the line, as many birds refuse to cross even the smallest stretches of open water.
Wallace's hypothetical line between Australasian and Southeast Asian fauna. Relief map is the display globe of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
External links
Reference
- Penny van Oosterzee, Where Worlds Collide: the Wallace Line, 1997
Books about Wallace
- Just Before the Origin: Alfred Russel Wallace's Theory of Evolution by John Langdon Brooks ISBN 1583481117
- The Spice Islands Voyage: The Quest for Alfred Wallace, the Man Who Shared Darwin's Discovery of Evolution by Timothy Severin and Tim Severin ISBN 0786707216
See also
Australia-New Guinea
The above article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
The Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace
Where Worlds Collide: The Wallace Line by Penny Van Oosterzee
Island Life (Great Minds Series) by Alfred Russel Wallace
Archipelago : Islands of Indonesia by Gavan Daws
The Spice Islands Voyage: The Quest for Alfred Wallace, the Man Who Shared Darwin's Discovery of Evolution by Timothy Severin
In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History by Michael Shermer
The Heretic in Darwin's Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace by Ross A. Slotten
An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace by Martin Fichman
The Alfred Russel Wallace Reader: A Selection of Writings from the Field (Center Books in Natural History) by Alfred Russel Wallace
The Malay Archipelago, the Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise; A Narrative of Travel, With by Alfred Russel Wallace
Infinite Tropics: An Alfred Russel Wallace Collection by Andrew Berry
Alfred Russel Wallace : A Life by Peter Raby
Infinite Tropics: An Alfred Russel Wallace Anthology by Andrew Berry
Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life. by Peter Raby
The Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace
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