Darwin and Wallace

• Darwin observed many organisms during his five week stay to the Galapagos Islands, near Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.
• Darwin's theory of evolution challenged the idea that God and all the animals and plants that live on Earth, which contradicted that commonly held Christians views of his era
• Darwin did not publish his scientific work until 28 years after his voyage
• Finally, after a result of Darwin's world expedition and observations, which were backed by many years of experimentation; his discussions with like-minded scientists and his developing knowledge of geology and fossils; he proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection
• Alfred Russel Wallace was a great admirer of Darwin and a fellow naturalist.
• Working independently from Darwin, Wallace also developed a theory of evolution by natural selection
• Wallace is best known for discovering warning coloration in animals, and his theory of speciation.
• When Wallace proposed his theory of evolution, Darwin was encouraged to gather his own unpublished material together, on which he had been working on in secret for 20 years.
• In 1858, the two men presented papers on their theories to the Linnean Society, and the following year Darwin published his masterwork, On the Origin of Species.