Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace both made monumental contributions to the development of the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Which of the following statements correctly describes their scientific contributions, observations, or the historical development of evolutionary theory?
Darwin's observations of finches on the Galápagos Islands led him to immediately publish On the Origin of Species in 1839, whereas Wallace did not formulate his ideas until studying warning coloration in the Amazon in 1858.
While both scientists independently concluded that natural selection drives adaptation, Wallace's work in the Malay Archipelago highlighted the role of geographical barriers in speciation, and he pioneered the study of evolutionary warning coloration.
Wallace and Darwin together developed the Modern Synthesis, integrating Mendelian genetics with natural selection during their joint expedition on the HMS Beagle.
Darwin focused on how environmental pressures select for beneficial mutations in DNA, whereas Wallace's theory was purely based on the selection of phenotypic traits without any concept of heritable transmission.