Alfred
Russel Wallace had the greatest influence over Charles Darwin through his
developing theory of Natural Selection. By studying and taking notice of
animals and their evolution, Wallace contributed a great deal to science.
Darwin and Wallace together realized that existence and survival does not come
down to pure chance and coincidence.
“Darwin
and Wallace both realized that if an animal has some trait that helps it to
withstand the elements or to breed more successfully, it may leave more
offspring behind than others. On average, the trait will become more common in
the following generation, and the generation after that.” http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_14
The most important discovery that benefited the
scientific community the most as Darwin wrestled with the idea of natural
selection was when Darwin began to notice and spend time observing pigeons.
Together, Wallace and Darwin found that natural selection can produce “new
types of body parts, from wings to eyes” through the observing of these
pigeons.
I believe that Darwin may have been able to
develop the idea of natural selection on his own and without the influence of
Wallace. They noticed that not only animals but plants also change over periods
of time through evolution.
The Church and the people in it believed that God
created the world and not science/evolution. They believed also that man did
not come from animals but that they were created by God just like the rest of
the world and the things in it. Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species” proved
that evolution could be proved through science and that humans are evolved
forms of animals. The attitudes of the church did not discourage Darwin or
force him to shut down his study. He kept his belief the same.
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ReplyDeleteHi Desiree.
ReplyDeleteI believe Wallace definitely helped to lend credence to the concepts that Darwin was creating. However Darwin was already deep into his understandings of natural selection and fine tuning his theory. This seemed more of a competitor to Darwin, he even realized that Wallace might receive credit for an idea Darwin came up with, hence why he decided to finally publish his theory.