Profiles in Science for Science Librarians: “What Lives Where, and Why”: Alfred Russel Wallace, and the Field of Biogeography

Abstract

Biogeography, the study of animal and plant distribution, has a history extending back to at least the eighteenth century. But it was not until the work of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-nineteenth century that it really came into its own as a science. Darwin's importance notwithstanding, it was really Wallace who put the field on the map, and many of today's research threads can be traced back to his influence. This article provides a summary review of Wallace's life and work and biogeography as a field of study, including Wallace's role in its development.

Keywords:

• biogeography
• biography of scientists
• Alfred Russel Wallace
• history of science
• evolution
• natural history
• geographical distribution