How did the work of Thomas Malthus influence Darwin and Wallace in creating their theories of natural selection?. Earth & Marine Sciences

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Thomas Malthus was referring to human populations in his writings, but they showed Darwin and Wallace that the number of organisms that could be produced generation after generation would quickly surpass the amount of resources that would be needed for all of them to survive. This idea, that reproduction would outstrip availability of resources and lead to competition, provided the key for both Darwin and Wallace in understanding the differential survival of varying forms of organisms and the selection of better-performing variants

 

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