1. Jean-Baptiste Lamark, Georges Cuvier, Charles Lyell, and Thomas Malthus all had a connection with Darwin that led to his theory of evolution, but Alfred Russel Wallace had a greater influence. Wallace and Darwin's ideas were very alike I believe. They both went on similar trips to islands filled with creatures never seen before coming up with relatively close beliefs. Both also shared the same theory of natural selection in which a dominant trait of a species, in any given environment, will be passed on to the offspring so they can ultimately survive. Wallace even "decided to seek Darwin's help in publishing his own ideas on evolution (Understanding Evolution)." At that point, Darwin noticed how similar their ideas were and boosted Darwin to finally publish his book after 20 plus years. While most of the credit is awarded to Darwin, Wallace deserves as much credit due to the similarity and cooperation between the two.
2. A few of the questions apply to Wallace and his affect on Darwin. First, when the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be
different. Species that inherit the necessary trait to survive in their environment will survive. With that being said, however, survival is not enough. Secondly, in order for natural selection to occur, reproduction must occur over and over and over again. Unlike the hypothetical example that Lamark had made about a giraffes neck getting longer over, Wallace and Darwin shared the thought of giraffes having a variation in neck lengths, the longest would survive, and henceforth would reproduce creating longer-necked giraffes outlasting all the others.
3. The last two questions, 'Could Darwin have developed his theory of natural selection without the influence and ideas of this
individual?' and 'How did the attitude of the church affect Darwin and his eventual publication of his book On the
Origin of Species?' have the same answer for my argument. Yes, Darwin could have developed his theories without Wallace. They both had similar ideas and Charles Darwin did not publish his book until after he sought out recognition from his profound peers. Sure, Darwin probably would have eventually published "On the Origins of Species" but he did it sooner because he recognized from Wallace that he wasn't the only one with those ideas. Same goes for the church affecting Darwin. In those times, religion was powerful. No one dared go against it. Who would want to be the person that came out and said the church was wrong? Darwin waited more than twenty years to get his book out there to the public and only after he realized he wasn't the only one thinking about the history of all species.
Understanding Evolution - http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_14
