The high point for Wallace's explorations on Sulawesi was the search for a bird called the maleo, which exists in nature only on the island. Many of its unique species are close to extinction in the wild, found only in nature preserves. Today, Sulawesi's natural abundance has been severely depleted. Wallace, ultimately, faded into obscurity.īut at the time, Wallace was still refining his ideas about natural selection - and had landed on what is now Indonesia's island of Sulawesi, a place where most of the animals there existed no place else on earth. The following year, Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species and rose to fame. In the 19th century, the island's rich and unique biodiversity helped Wallace understand how species adapted to their environment - and how regions are defined by the animals that live in them. "He sent that to Darwin, as an older mentor, if you like, to have a peer review before publication," Whitten says.įishermen arrive on Wakatobi island in Sulawesi waters off eastern Indonesia in 2009. He was on the island of Halmahera, ill with a fever, when it came to him: Animals evolve by adapting to their environment.Īs soon as he could, Wallace wrote his theory down in a closely argued, eight- or nine-page paper, says Tony Whitten, a Wallace expert with British-based Flora & Fauna International. But he didn't figure out how until one night three years later.
Wallace collected more than 100,000 insect, bird and animal specimens, which he gave to British museums.īy 1855, Wallace had come to the conclusion that living things evolve. Few places on earth can rival this vast archipelago's tremendous diversity of plant and animal life. Wallace developed some of his most important ideas about natural selection during an eight-year expedition to what was then the Dutch East Indies - modern-day Indonesia - to observe wildlife and collect specimens. In fact, Alfred Russel Wallace, another British naturalist, was a co-discoverer of the theory - though Darwin has gotten most of the credit.
But over time, Charles Darwin became almost universally thought of as the father of evolution.Īsk most folks who came up with the theory of evolution, and they'll tell you it was Charles Darwin. The research of British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) played a pivotal role in developing the theory of natural selection.
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