Evolution Commons^™

Wallace And Incipient Structures: A World Of "More Recondite" Influences, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

Alfred Russel Wallace is well-known for his co-discovery of the principle of natural selection. Natural selection is usually considered a process, but it is not clear that Wallace regarded it in exactly these terms. In fact he more likely thought of the relationships involved as representing what we would now term a “state space,” a negative feedback loop wherein populations are maintained at healthy levels through elimination of the unfit. Both before and after the advent of natural selection Wallace clung to the idea that “more recondite forces” were shaping the nature and direction of evolution; this is especially evident …

Wallace On Natural Selection: What Did He Really Have In Mind?, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Further Look At The 1858 Wallace-Darwin Mail Delivery Question, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

Recent investigations have led to a conclusion that Alfred Russel Wallace probably mailed his ‘Ternate’ paper on natural selection to Darwin a month later than some have thought, thus freeing Darwin from possible accusations of plagiarism. Further examination of the question suggests this conclusion is premature, as the evidence in favor of the later mailing date appears to be shakier than first thought.

Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists And Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches, Charles H. Smith, Joshua Woleben, Carubie Rodgers

DLPS Faculty Publications

Each name in the following list of naturalists is linked to a corresponding capsule "chrono-biographical" sketch of that individual prepared by the authors. Coverage extends from approximately 1950 backward in time as far as the eighteenth century; figures from all over the world are included (though there is admittedly a decided Anglo-American bias). The target subject here is biogeography, but this being a broad field there are many persons on the list who are better known as climatologists, zoologists, botanists, ecologists, oceanographers, paleontologists, etc.--in other words, who made their main reputations in cognate disciplines.

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Natural Selection: A Concept In Need Of Some Evolution?, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

In some respects natural selection is a quite simple theory, arrived at through the logical integration of three propositions (the presence of variation within natural populations, an absolutely limited resources base, and procreation capacities exceeding mere replacement numbers) whose individual truths can hardly be denied. Its relation to the larger subject of evolution, however, remains problematic. It is suggested here that a scaling-down of the meaning of natural selection to “the elimination of the unfit,” as originally intended by Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), might ultimately prove a more effective means of relating it to larger-scale, longer-term, evolutionary processes.

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 3: Two Early Publications, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 1 : Authorship Of Two Early Works, Charles H. Smith, Michael Taylor, Gerrell M. Drawhorn

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 2 : The Spelling "Russel", And Wallace's Date Of Birth, Charles H. Smith, James Williams, Jonathan Stephens, George Beccaloni

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Alfred Russel Wallace, Geographer, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

Among the great explorers and thinkers who advanced geography in the nineteenth century and helped it evolve into the subject that exists today is a man who is not always connected with the field, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913). Most commonly recognized as ‘the other man’ in the history of the discovery of the principle of natural selection, Wallace’s commitment to the study of landscape and its physical, biological, and human elements was lifelong, and resulted in a wide range of contributions to biogeography, physical geography, human geography, and ethnography. In this year of the double anniversaries of Charles Darwin’s birth …

What's In A Word? On Reading--And Misreading--Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Wallace, Spiritualism, And Beyond: "Change," Or "No Change"?, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Alfred Russel Wallace: Past And Future [Guest Editorial], Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

The naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) has for many years been standing in the shadow of his more famed co-discoverer of the principle of natural selection, Charles Darwin. Despite outward similarities between the two men’s formulation of the principle, Wallace had fit his appreciation of natural selection into views on evolution that were quite different from Darwin’s. A closer examination of what Wallace had in mind suggests a model of process in which natural selection per se acts as the negative feedback mechanism (actually, a ‘statespace’) in the relation between population and environment, and environmental engagement as made possible by …

Alfred Russel Wallace: A Capsule Biography, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Wallace, Alfred Russel (1823-1913), Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction (To Volume One Of Alfred Russel Wallace: Writings On Evolution, 1843-1912)*, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Introduction" (To Alfred Russel Wallace; An Anthology Of His Shorter Writings), Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Areographic Representation Of Faunal Characteristics Through A "Second Order" Relational Approach, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

Areographic analysis has traditionally depended on primary data consisting of location-specific tallies of presence or absence of given forms. In the present work, an alternate manner of representing distributions is suggested. Regional units are first established, and presence and absence of the forms under consideration in these units is noted. The relation of the biota at any given point location to all others is then established through examination of the former's characteristics of inclusion in the latter. This is accomplished by detailing regional level trends of inclusion and setting up a "second-order" distribution of associations. Two kinds of descriptive information …