Island Life

As the co-formulator with Charles Darwin of the theory of biological evolution via natural selection, naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) argued that plant and animal species develop throughout organic history. Wallace focused special attention on the diversity of tropical life forms and became acutely aware of the adaptive relationship between each species and its particular environment: an ongoing relationship that is necessary for survival and reproduction. After amassing empirical evidence from the Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote Island Life (1881) in order to document the dynamic realtionship between organisms and their climatic habitats. Anticipating our present concern with both endangered species and vanishing environments, Wallace's ecological studies helped substantiate the fact of evolution. This book is an excellent example of long-term research and the far-reaching insights such scientific projects hold for understanding and appreciating the evolving life on Earth.

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913) was an English naturalist who originated independently a theory of natural selection, an account of which he sent to Charles Darwin. The Linnaean Society of London published a joint paper by the two scientists in which the theory was presented,?Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first in the?Amazon River basin?and then 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.