L’évolution des espèces : Darwin célébré, Wallace oublié

The 12th of February 2009 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the British naturalist whose theory of evolution revolutionized the telling of human history. Darwin is most famous for his book, On the Origin of Species, which asserts that humans evolved over millions of years from apes. Darwin has been credited with the discovery of the cause of evolution by virtually one.
It seems that only recently has it been noticed that the first publication of the complete explanation of what is called « Darwin’s » theory was by another scientist named Alfred Russel Wallace, a contemporary of Darwin. It can truthfully be said that Wallace has obtained as equal a position in obscurity as Darwin has obtained in prominence.
As an example of this « unfair » situation, Alberto Masi explains us that Darwin was the only one to receive the Bressa prize of the Royal Academy of Turin in 1879…
We present two important discoveries directly related to Ornithology: the concept of the Wallace’s line, an imaginary boundary between Australasia and Indomalaya fauna, and the Darwin’s Finches speciation in the Galápagos and Cocos Islands in the Pacific Ocean.