Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection: a series of essays

by Alfred Russel Wallace

Overview

According to Wikipedia: "Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently proposing a theory of evolution due to natural selection that prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory. Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the Wallace Line that divides the Indonesian archipelago into two distinct parts, one in which animals closely related to those of Australia are common, and one in which the species are largely of Asian origin. He was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species and is sometimes called the "father of biogeography". Wallace was one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century and made a number of other contributions to the development of evolutionary theory besides being co-discoverer of natural selection. These included the concept of warning colouration in animals, and the Wallace effect, a hypothesis on how natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridization."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455405794
Publisher:	B&R Samizdat Express
Publication date:	04/01/2011
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	854 KB

Table of Contents

Preface; Additions and corrections to the essays as originally published; Preface to the second edition; 1. On the law which has regulated the introduction of new species; 2. On the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type; 3. Mimicry and other protective resemblances among animals; 4. The Malayan Papilionidae, or swallow-tailed butterflies, as illustrative of the theory of natural selection; 5. On instinct in Man and animals; 6. The philosophy of birds' nests; 7. A theory of birds' nests; 8. Creation by law; 9. The development of human races under the law of natural selection; 10. The limits of natural selection as applied to Man; Notes; Index.