Life › Life & humans today › Evolution by natural selection
Alfred Russel Wallace
1823–1913; co-discovered natural selection 1858· Scientist· Animals
Well establishedStrong fossil, genetic or geological evidence.
British naturalist who discovered natural selection independently of Darwin and pioneered the study of where species live.
See it on the Life map →What happened
Alfred Russel Wallace, largely self-taught, paid for his travels by selling specimens. After four years in the Amazon he spent 1854–62 in the Malay Archipelago, collecting about 125,000 specimens. In 1858, recovering from fever in the Moluccas, he worked out natural selection and mailed his essay to Charles Darwin. Their papers were read together in London that July. He also mapped the 'Wallace Line' between Bali and Lombok, where Asian and Australian wildlife meet.
Why it matters
His essay pushed Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species in 1859, and his work on where animals live founded biogeography, a key line of evidence for evolution.
Discoveries and legacy
His 1858 Ternate essay, letters with Darwin, The Malay Archipelago (1869), and many specimens at London's Natural History Museum. He later embraced spiritualism, which hurt his scientific standing.
Still debated
Exactly when Darwin received the 1858 letter, and whether it influenced his own writing, is debated by historians, though most reject claims of plagiarism.
Connections (2)
▸Alfred Russel Wallace co-discovered Evolution by natural selectionWell established
The connection
While collecting animals in what is now Indonesia, Wallace hit on the same idea during a fever in February 1858: in each generation the less fit die and the fittest survive, so species change. Like Darwin, he credited Malthus. He mailed his essay to Darwin, and their papers were presented together.
When and how
Moluccas (Ternate or Halmahera), in today's Indonesia, February 1858; joint presentation at the Linnean Society of London, 1 July 1858.
The evidence
Wallace's essay, 'On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type', was printed with Darwin's extracts in the Society's journal in August 1858.
Debates and open questions
Wallace later argued natural selection could not explain the human mind, parting from Darwin; historians still weigh whether he gets due credit.
▸Alfred Russel Wallace forced the hand of Charles DarwinWell established
The connection
Darwin had sat on his theory for twenty years. Wallace's 1858 essay set out the same idea so closely that Darwin wrote that all his originality would be 'smashed'. Friends Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker arranged a joint presentation, and Darwin rushed out On the Origin of Species, an 'abstract' of his planned big book, within 17 months.
When and how
Darwin received the essay in June 1858 at Down House, Kent; the Linnean Society presentation was on 1 July 1858, with neither author present.
The evidence
Darwin's letter of 18 June 1858 to Lyell survives, and Wallace later titled his own book Darwinism (1889), showing no resentment.
Debates and open questions
Wallace's covering letter is lost, so exactly when it arrived is disputed; most historians reject claims that Darwin borrowed from the essay.