16.The man who wrote "Essay on the Principal of Population" (1798) that influenced Darwin's development of his theory fo natural selection was

Question

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Thomas Robert Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) argued that human populations grow geometrically while food production increases arithmetically, so populations face a constant tendency toward overpopulation, scarcity, and competition. This central insight — that more individuals are born than can survive given limited resources — provided the key ecological premise Darwin used in formulating natural selection.

Relevant knowledge points:
- Malthus (Thomas R. Malthus, 1766–1834) published the 1798 essay describing population growth and resource limits.
- Darwin (1809–1882) read Malthus in 1838 and explicitly credited him with suggesting the “struggle for existence” that underlies natural selection.
- Natural selection requires variation, heritability, and differential survival/reproduction due to limited resources.

Step-by-step reasoning:
1. Identify the options: Wallace, Linnaeus, Malthus, Huxley.
2. Place them in historical and conceptual context:
   - Linnaeus (1707–1778) developed taxonomic classification, not population theory.
   - Malthus published his essay in 1798; its thesis is about population pressures and competition.
   - Darwin read Malthus and noted that if more individuals are produced than can survive, then favorable variations will be preserved — this is the logic of natural selection.
   - Wallace independently formulated a similar mechanism much later (mid-19th century) and corresponded with Darwin; Huxley was Darwin’s advocate and critic of opposing views.
3. Match the question: which author of the 1798 essay influenced Darwin? That is Malthus.

Why Malthus is correct:
Malthus provided the explicit idea of competition caused by limited resources; Darwin applied this to heritable variation in organisms, concluding that advantageous traits would be preserved — core to natural selection. Darwin himself acknowledged Malthus as a major influence after reading him in 1838.

Why the other choices are incorrect:
- Wallace: co-discoverer of natural selection later, not the 1798 author.
- Linnaeus: famous for taxonomy and binomial nomenclature, not for population theory.
- Huxley: 19th-century biologist and defender of Darwin, not the author of the 1798 essay.

Conclusion: The correct answer is Malthus, matching the provided answer.

16.The man who wrote "Essay on the Principal of Population" (1798) that influenced Darwin's development of his theory fo natural selection was 单项选择题

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