Natural Selection In A. R. Wallace's Letter From Singapore
“Breakfast at 8. Out to the jungle at 9.” wrote British naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) to his mother, in an 1854 letter from Singapore.
A. R. Wallace went on to propose the evolutionary theory of natural selection (independent of Charles Darwin) in the midst of his 8-year stay in Southeast Asia. Very simply put, natural selection means that the species with the more favourable adaptations will survive in the long term whereas the ones with the less favourable traits will become extinct.
In March 1854, the self-taught Wallace left Britain on a Peninsular & Oriental steamship, bound for the Far East. After 6 weeks at sea, he arrived in Singapore on 18th April 1854. He used Singapore as a base and stayed here several times, for a total of 228 days, during his long stint in Southeast Asia. …show more content…
Today, a 1km track in the Dairy Farm Nature Park named the ‘Wallace Trail’, commemorates his time in Singapore. He also collected many specimens of local birds including the multi-coloured bee-eaters, Asian fairy bluebirds, red crowned barbets, among others. Wallace collected multiple specimens of the same species – for his study and personal collection as well as for sale to museums and rich patrons back in Britain.
During his time in Southeast Asia, Wallace undertook over 50 separate journeys, amounting to approximately 14,000 miles - from peninsular Malaysia, to the far-flung islands of the Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia) as well as to Papua New Guinea. In this span, he and his assistants collected over 125,000 specimens of mammals, birds and insects, of which nearly 2,000 species were possibly unknown to man at the
A. R. Wallace went on to propose the evolutionary theory of natural selection (independent of Charles Darwin) in the midst of his 8-year stay in Southeast Asia. Very simply put, natural selection means that the species with the more favourable adaptations will survive in the long term whereas the ones with the less favourable traits will become extinct.
In March 1854, the self-taught Wallace left Britain on a Peninsular & Oriental steamship, bound for the Far East. After 6 weeks at sea, he arrived in Singapore on 18th April 1854. He used Singapore as a base and stayed here several times, for a total of 228 days, during his long stint in Southeast Asia. …show more content…
Today, a 1km track in the Dairy Farm Nature Park named the ‘Wallace Trail’, commemorates his time in Singapore. He also collected many specimens of local birds including the multi-coloured bee-eaters, Asian fairy bluebirds, red crowned barbets, among others. Wallace collected multiple specimens of the same species – for his study and personal collection as well as for sale to museums and rich patrons back in Britain.
During his time in Southeast Asia, Wallace undertook over 50 separate journeys, amounting to approximately 14,000 miles - from peninsular Malaysia, to the far-flung islands of the Dutch East Indies (modern day Indonesia) as well as to Papua New Guinea. In this span, he and his assistants collected over 125,000 specimens of mammals, birds and insects, of which nearly 2,000 species were possibly unknown to man at the