Abstract

PEREZ-MALVAEZ, Carlos; BRIBIESCA ESCUTIA, Guadalupe  and  BUENO HERNANDEZ, Antonio Alfredo. The Amazon and Biogeography: Creationism against Transmutationism. Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2018, vol.23, n.3, pp.225-234. ISSN 0120-548X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/abc.v23n3.71221.

In the nineteenth century, the study of geographical distribution was a fundamental piece to understand the close relationship between morphological variation and the geographical distribution of organisms under the perspective that the relationship could finally respond to the debate on whether the species originated by creation or by transmutation. In an independent manner, Wallace as well as Agassiz both studied with great interest the geographical distribution of the Amazonian species, although for completely different purposes. Wallace thought that the geographical distribution could explain how new species emerged from his predecessors, while Agassiz was interested in demonstrating that species emerged from independent acts of creation and remained unchanged. The purpose of this paper was to reflect on why if both had the same empirical evidence they came to such opposite interpretations. It is concluded that it was not only the empirical evidence, but the intellectual influences that both had, the cause that determined their different interpretations of the biogeographic distribution.

Keywords : Amazon; creationism; geographical distribution; transmutation.

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