Alfred Russel Wallace

explorer · evolution · naturalist · Victorian science

Wallace studied wildlife.. He traveled to distant places like the Amazon and Southeast Asia to collect and study animals, insects, and plants that no European scientists had seen before.

He discovered evolution.. While exploring in Indonesia, Wallace had a brilliant idea about how animals change over time to fit their environments, which he called natural selection.

He wrote it down.. In 1858, Wallace sent his ideas in a paper to Charles Darwin, who had been thinking about the same thing for years but hadn't published yet.

He inspired Darwin.. Wallace's paper shocked Darwin into action, and it helped push Darwin to finally finish and publish his groundbreaking book On the Origin of Species in 1859.

He drew what he saw.. Wallace was also a talented illustrator who made detailed drawings of the creatures he discovered, helping scientists understand the natural world better.