On the Origin of Species by Alfred Russel Wallace, claimed that patterns in the geographical distribution of living and fossil species could be explained if every new species always came into existence near an already existing, closely related species. Charles Lyell recognised the implications of Wallace's paper and its possible connection to Darwin's work, although Darwin did not, and in a letter written on 1–2 May 1856 Lyell urged Darwin to publish his theory to establish priority. Darwin was torn between the desire to set out a full and convincing account and the pressure to quickly produce a short paper. He met Lyell, and in
Genetics and the Origin of Species series of notable books: "Systematics and the Origin of Species" (1942) by Ernst Mayr; "Tempo and Mode in Evolution" (1944) by George Gaylord Simpson; and "Variation and Evolution in Plants" (1950) by G. Ledyard Stebbins. The emerging synthesis was called the evolutionary synthesis by Julian Huxley in his book, "". In 1947, a diverse collection of biologists met at a symposium in Princeton and declared their acceptance of this synthesis. However, it was not yet complete. Developmental biologists did not accept that the theory explained their observations, and it was not until the 1970s and 1980s that molecular biology bridged