Evolution and Biogeography: Leading Students in Darwin's and Wallace's Footsteps

Abstract

Exploring life's diversity and geography's effect on it was central to Darwin and Wallace's parallel discoveries of evolution. Those discoveries required the two to overcome their own misconceptions about species and biology. By helping students to see the world through the eyes of explorers and placing life's diversity into a geographic context, teachers can help students overcome those same barriers to the acceptance of evolution and deepen students' appreciation of biodiversity.