Question

Darwin was influenced by the writings of
A. Malthus
B. Wallace
C. Lyell
D. All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Darwin was influenced by early thinkers, including Lamarck, Lyell, and Malthus.
Darwin was also influenced by his knowledge of artificial selection.
Wallace's paper on evolution confirmed Darwin's ideas.

Complete answer:
Charles Darwin was influenced by many scientist and scholars:
Firstly, Thomas Malthus wrote essays about the populations and the carrying capacities for the environment. Malthus was an economist and his ideas about overpopulation, diseases, and the struggle to survive influenced Darwin.
Secondly, Charles Lyell influenced Darwin. Lyell was a geologist who came up with the idea of uniformitarianism, which means that the same processes that were at work in the past are at work in the present. Lyell was the first geologist to come up with an estimate of the great age of the earth, based on the processes of erosion.
And also, Alfred Russel Wallace also influenced Darwin. Quite independently, he came up with the same idea of evolution by natural selection.
Therefore, the correct answer is the option D.

Additional information:
Darwin's Theory of Evolution is the theory of evolution by natural selection, first formulated in Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species".
It is the process by which the organisms change over time as a result of changes in the heritable physical or behavioral traits.
Further, Darwin's theory of evolution is also called Darwinism and can be further divided into five parts such as evolution, common descent, gradualism, population speciation, and natural selection.

Note: James Hutton was the very famous geologist who influenced Charles Darwin.
Darwin said that the mechanism for change over the period of time within species was the natural selection and it was this mechanism that had been working on the species ever since the first species appeared on the Earth.