Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
pre-existing closely allied species” (Wallace 1855:156), meaning that geo-
graphic distribution was not random but followed a simple law. Additionally,
Wallace's law challenged species immutability: Species evolved. Wallace
also used the term
creation,
but for him it meant creation from preexisting
species. He clearly challenged special acts of creation, these being unne-
cessary to account for the existence of new species.
Wallace (1863a) published an article on the geography of the Malay
archipelago, which was accompanied by a map depicting the boundary
between the Asian and Australian biotas, known later as Wallace's line.
Mapping this boundary served four functions: It was a method for commu-
nicating and organizing faunistic data, a potential device for predicting range
limits of other species, a modern method of argumentation, and a method
of analysis that tested evolutionary hypotheses positively (Camerini 1993).
Another of Wallace's biogeographic projects was his attempt to map the
boundary line between the Malays and the Papuans in Southeast Asia (Wal-
lace 1863b). Although concerns with origins and explanations were very
important to Wallace's biogeographic thinking, this work on human biogeo-
graphy dealt not only with the search for evolutionary mechanisms but also
with field mapping over geographic space (Vetter 2006). Although Wallace
combined fact gathering with higher-level generalizing, on his return to Eng-
land he found that the response to his theoretical interpretations was less
than enthusiastic.
Wallace (1864) published
On Some Anomalies in Zoological and Botan-
ical Geography
, in which he changed to a clear permanentist position
(Bueno-Hernández and Llorente Bousquets 2003). The objective of this pa-
per was to analyze some “anomalies” in the distribution of different taxa
and to articulate a general system of regionalization for Earth. Following
Sclater's ideas, Wallace's purpose was to look for natural relationships
between the ontological regions. In contrast with his previous works, Wal-
lace (1864) postulated that long-distance dispersal was the fundamental
process that caused distributional patterns. Despite showing a firm perman-
entism, he still displayed a degree of extensionism:
A great part of the southern portion of America is of more recent
date than the central tropical mass, and must have had at some
time a closer communication than at present with the Antarctic lands
and Australia, the insects and plants of which finding a congenital
climate, established themselves in the new country. (Wallace
1864:120)
