Alfred Russel Wallace

Record year1838 (formation date in a later self-report) / 1842–1859 (window of extant texts and public delivery)

summaryExplains adaptation and population change through the differential preservation of heritable variation under conditions of survival; includes the shared mechanism independently formulated by the two authors in 1858, and Darwin’s bounded public argument, organization of evidence, and responses to counterexamples through 1859.

M rationaleNatural selection connects heritable variation, differential survival and reproduction, adaptation, population change, and divergence into a repeatedly testable explanatory framework. It addresses the problem of biological diversity and continues to enter modern biological research and teaching, meeting the current M7 gate for cross-generational, broad foundational function. Its coverage is broader than the M6.7 near-domain anchor that explains only island species-number equilibrium; like the M7 outcomes in information theory, electromagnetic-field/light synthesis, and syllogistic reasoning, it supplies an organizing framework across problems while accounting for later increments separately. Newton’s M7.2 is only a sensitivity comparison for stronger unifying coverage. The central assessment excludes mechanisms of heredity, population genetics, and the modern synthesis, so it does not take 7.2 or M8. Both 6.7 and 7.2 are editorial sensitivity points, not historical lower and upper bounds.

attribution rationaleResearch point estimate: the 1844/1857 formative materials and bounded 1859 argument support Darwin at 0.42; Wallace’s independently formed 1858 mechanism supports 0.32; prior theoretical, observational, and practical work actually used but not yet itemized by person receives 0.14; and the unresolved remainder receives 0.12. These proportions are revisable judgments, not measurements from historical sources. Lyell’s and Hooker’s selection and submission were communication and receive no share for theoretical formation; removing 0.03 neither automatically gives it to the authors nor proves an equal unknown formation responsibility.

overlap boundaryThe 1858 I/II/III texts, Chapter IV of 1859, and the formative materials of 1844/1857 serve one natural-selection outcome. Publication vehicles, repeated statements, refinements of argument, and links to classification are not accumulated by document count. If future evidence establishes that the premise of sympatric diversification has an isolable, non-duplicative, independently sustained function, the corresponding function must first be removed from this object before a separate outcome is created; it cannot simply be added as another item.

Evidence gapsA line-by-line collation of the complete 1844 text, complete 1857 text, complete 1858 III text, and the whole 1859 book is not yet complete, nor have named inputs from Malthus, breeders, collectors, and correspondents been translated into attributable actions. Wallace’s lost covering letter/manuscript is not a permanent condition for refusing to score; unknown responsibility is already carried by the 0.12 unresolved share. This object boundary and budget have passed limited independent semantic review. Public adoption still requires item-by-item bilingual explanation and linked validation, but does not require recovering a lost manuscript.