Natural History Can Be Defined as the Study of Organisms - Essay Example

?Natural history can be defined as the study of organisms, both plants and animals, in their natural environment and most of the studies conducted inthis area tend to be based on observations rather than experimentation. Natural history has had many contributors throughout history, from ancient times all the way to the modern age with the development of scientific methods being introduced to this field. Among the greatest contributors to this field of study was the natural historian Alfred Russel Wallace, who alongside Charles Darwin propagated the theory of evolution. Wallace can be considered to be one of the nineteenth century’s leading experts on matters concerning the geographical distribution of the various species of living organisms and as such, was also a major proponent of the theory of evolution, making significant contributions to the development of the latter theory and most of his ideas have remained pertinent in the study of natural history to the present day. Such concepts as the warning colouration in animals among many others can be attributed to Wallace, which describe a variety of colours developed by various animals, especially those which tend to be prey, to warn off potential predators. In addition, he theorised, predators can be warned of pursuing their potential prey if the latter has developed a bitter taste on its body which if the predator tastes deters it from further attempting to catch the prey. Wallace was the first to make this observation and wrote several papers concerning it in an attempt to effectively explain this new concept in the scientific community, making a significant contribution which has come to be further developed with the better development of modern scientific tools. Wallace was unique among his peers because of the fact that he tended to go against convention and the norms not only set by the society in which he lived but also by the scientific community of his time. While most of the members of the scientific community of his time tended to hold onto the belief in the biblical creation story, Wallace, along with Charles Darwin, went a step further when he came up with the idea of evolution which shook the field to its foundations because it was a never before heard of concept. Darwin developed this theory further when he wrote his On the Origin of Species, which revolutionised the way of thinking concerning the natural sciences from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Wallace further developed the hypothesis which has come to be known as the Wallace effect, which is the suggestion concerning how natural selection has made significant contributions to speciation through the encouragement of those barriers which are responsible for the prevention of hybridisation, hence the separate development of species (Berry & Browne, 2008). Wallace took his unconventional ideas to a new level when he advocated his belief in spiritualism and his faith in a non-material foundation for the higher mental abilities of humans and this put him on a collision course with other members of the scientific founding of his time, who did not hold the same views as he had on the matter. He went against the norm of nineteenth century Britain when he got seriously involved in social and environmental activism since expressed his belief in the fact that Britain had an unjust social and economic system which was detrimental to its society (Smith, 2003). His activism went further because in his studies concerning natural history made him become one of the foremost individuals in history, as well as among the prominent scientists of his time, to raise concerns over the impact which the activities of human beings, especially the industries, had on the environment, and as such, one would say that he was among the first environmental activists in world history. From the very beginning of his career as a naturalist, Wallace was a firm believer in the transmutation of species, which was not a new concept at the time since it had been advocated by among others Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Robert Grant. This theory had been widely discussed within the scientific establishment but while this was the case, the transmutation of species still faced a lot of opposition from quite a number of scientists, who would not accept such a radical idea taking root. Such scientists as Owen and Sedgwick, who were quite prominent in their own right, vigorously attacked this theory as proposed by Wallace and Darwin and they did this mainly because they believed that this theory had within it connotations that were revolutionary and would put the scientific establishment in chaos if propagated. One would suggest that Wallace may have only adopted the idea of the evolution of species mainly because he tended to be inclined towards adopting those ideas which many in the scientific establishment found to be radical and that went against the convention of his time (Psomiades, 2010). Not only did Wallace favour radical scientific ideas, he also favoured those which involved politics and religion and he tended to be open to those ideas which at the time seemed to be extremely marginal in scientific thought. Among the biggest influences on Wallace was the work by Robert Chambers named Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which was a very controversial work of popular science which suggested that all things in creation were in existence because of evolution (Beccaloni & Smith, 2008). It suggested that not only the solar system itself but also the earth and all living and nonliving organisms had an evolutionary origin, ideas which some in the scientific establishment were not ready to accept. Wallace had a most favourable opinion of Chamber’s work than some of his colleagues in the same field and it was his belief that the work was backed by strong facts and evidence which, he felt, would end up being proven in future by even more facts. His firm belief in the correctness of the work may have been behind his own formulation of his own theory of evolution and natural selection and may have continued to influence him in his other works on the subject. He further felt that Chamber’s work challenged the student of natural sciences at the time to observe their environment more closely so that they would be able to find out whether Chambers had been right or wrong concerning his assumptions on the evolution of all elements in the solar system. Thus, he felt that it was imperative for natural scientists to study the work so that they would be able to look for evidence and collect facts which would eventually end up proving that the theory of evolution was, in fact, the most sensible way through which to view the world (Knapp, 2008). It was one of Wallace’s practices to deliberately plan some of his fieldwork so that he could be able to test his hypothesis that closely related species of organisms tended to occupy territories that lay next to each other and most of the studies to determine this were conducted in the Amazon basin. In his study of the latter environment, Wallace came to realise that there were geographical barriers, such as the Amazon River and its tributaries, which played a significant part in the separation of those species that were closely related, hence determining their separate development and preventing any hybridisation between them. Wallace was among those who came to propagate the idea of biogeography, which concerned the observation of both living and fossil species in their geographic distribution in order to determine the means through which they came to evolve to their current forms. He felt that the environment played a more significant part in the determination of the development of species than did the competition between the members of a species for the resources available to them (Smith, 2012). It was his stated belief that every species had come into existence because of circumstances related to both space and time and each of these species had appeared alongside a species which was closely related to it. While his early papers do not show or specify any mechanisms that determine the process of evolution, they came to determine the way his future papers would be presented, and can be considered a beginning to the more solid theories that he would later present. While it is a fact that Darwin believed all the works presented by Wallace to be the same as his own and saw no cause to dispute any of the latter’s ideas, there are various subtle differences between their ideas. An example of this is that while Darwin placed emphasis on the direct competition between members of the same species to reproduce and survive, Wallace on the other hand, emphasised that it was environmental pressures on the various species which forced them to evolve so that they could better adapt to their local environments. Another observation that can be observed and considered to be a difference between Wallace and Darwin is the fact that the former looked upon natural selection as being a mechanism that kept species adapted to their respective environments, hence determining their development. References Beccaloni, G.W. & Smith, V.S. 2008, "Celebrations for Darwin downplay Wallace's role", Nature, vol. 451, no. 7182, pp. 1050. Berry, A. & Browne, J. 2008, "The other beetle-hunter", Nature, vol. 453, no. 7199, pp. 1188-90. Knapp, S. 2008, "Command and control", Nature, vol. 453, no. 7196, pp. 721-722. Psomiades, K.A. 2010, "VICTORIAN SAVAGES", Criticism, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 135-144. Smith, C.H. 2003, "Alfred Russel Wallace, societal planning and environmental agenda", Environmental Conservation, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 215-218. Smith, C.H. 2012, "Alfred Russel Wallace and the elimination of the unfit", Journal of Biosciences, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 203-5. Read More