Alfred Russel Wallace
1823–1913 · British · Victorian Era
Known for: Co-discoverer of natural selection who independently conceived the theory of evolution
Alfred Russel Wallace independently discovered natural selection while delirious with fever in the Malay Archipelago. He wrote to Darwin about it, prompting the joint publication that launched evolutionary biology. He never expressed bitterness about Darwin getting more credit.
He spent years collecting specimens in the Amazon (losing everything in a shipwreck) and Southeast Asia. The Wallace Line in biogeography bears his name.
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