Alfred Russel Wallace Series

This British naturalist and explorer is renowned for independently proposing a theory of natural selection that spurred Charles Darwin to publish his own work. His extensive fieldwork in the Amazon River basin and the Malay Archipelago led to his identification of the Wallace Line, dividing Indonesia into two distinct biogeographical zones. Wallace was a leading 19th-century expert on the geographical distribution of species, earning him the title "father of biogeography." Beyond co-discovering natural selection, his contributions to evolutionary theory included the concept of warning coloration and the Wallace effect, explaining speciation. He was also known for his attraction to unconventional ideas like Spiritualism and his critique of social injustice.