Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 23: The Jersey Devil, And Friends, Charles H. Smith
Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 23: The Jersey Devil, And Friends, Charles H. Smith
Faculty/Staff Personal Papers
For nearly three hundred years reports have surfaced of a purported cryptid form known as the ‘Jersey devil.’ In this work an interpretation of the goals of biogeography is given, and how this field can be related to such alleged phenomena, as well as to some of the ideas of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) that seem to find their origin in the writings of Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677).
Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 12: How Good Was Wallace's Memory?, Charles H. Smith
Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 12: How Good Was Wallace's Memory?, Charles H. Smith
Faculty/Staff Personal Papers
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) continues to be criticized for inconsistencies in his recollections of the earlier events in his life. This criticism, while not entirely unjust, has nevertheless been overplayed. Critics have not attended to the general understanding that self-biography is under the influence of two aspects of memory: that pertaining to remembrance of the qualities of past situations, and a secondary ability to assign absolutes of name or date to such memories. All evidence suggests that Wallace’s memory in the first sense was excellent throughout his life, but that he was prone to lapses of the second type.
Historical Biogeography: Geography As Evolution, Evolution As Geography, Charles H. Smith
Historical Biogeography: Geography As Evolution, Evolution As Geography, Charles H. Smith
DLPS Faculty Publications
Despite a number of advances in recent years, biogeography remains a field with a poorly developed philosophical core. As a result, its historical and ecological sides remain as isolated from one another as ever. In this essay I argue that a more unified approach to biogeographic studies will become possible only when workers realise that it is necessary to reject absolute space, "geography as handmaiden" approaches to distribution problems in favour of structuralist models compatible with both probabilistic spatial interaction and deterministic phylogenetic kinds of thinking. Pros and cons of regionalist, vicariance, and panbiogeographic approaches are weighed in this regard; …