As the scientific world prepares to mark Charles Darwin’s bicentenary, the author of On the Origin of Species is facing accusations of plagiarism and unjustly claiming credit as the father of evolutionary theory.

A group of critics has commissioned computer experts with specialised antiplagiarism software to scour Darwin’s book, published in 1859, for similarities to a paper released the year before by Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist who worked for eight years in modern Indonesia.

Initial indications are that the analysis will show that some of the most important ideas in On the Origin of Species were taken from Wallace – in particular the idea that species with variations helping them to survive would thrive and pass on these features to their offspring.

The dispute over who deserves the credit is almost as old as evolutionary theory itself, with Darwin’s defenders claiming the two came up with similar ideas independently at the same time.

James Moore, a biographer and professor of the history of science at the Open University called the new plagiarism claim “manufactured” and said those pursuing it were under qualified to do so.“ You wouldn’t go to a plumber to do your tax return,” he said.

The fight over Darwin’s legacy comes in advance of numerous events to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth. The Natural History Museum is staging the largest exhibition ever seen about Darwin’s work. A film about his early life is due for release next October.

A Times editorial on Boxing Day said he had “a plausible claim to be counted the greatest figure in this nation’s history”. The government has proposed that his home, Down House in southeast London, be declared a World Heritage site.

The adulation has appalled critics, including lawyer David Hallmark, a trustee of the Wallace Foundation of Indonesia.

“The descent of Wallace from equality to relative invisibility is the direct result of the unlawful conduct of Charles Darwin by suppressing the true worth of Wallace as the author of the theory,” Hallmark said. He has spent years retracing the travels of Wallace in southeast Asia – where the naturalist’s findings included the brightly coloured Wallace’s flying frog.

The software used by Hallmark’s copyright experts can detect where phrasing is identical and also signs of an author’s style being copied.

Hallmark plans to submit his findings to the International Association of Forensic Linguists in Amsterdam in July.

“It is not proven yet but early suggestions are that there are strong grounds to suspect a direct link,” said Hallmark.

The crux of the Darwin- Wallace dispute is in two events in 1858. First, Darwin, who had working on his theory since his voyage on HMS Beagle in the 1830s, received a letter from Wallace on the island of Ternate in the Moluccas, sketching his evolutionary ideas.

Then both men’s work was presented to the Linnean Society of London. Darwin’s contribution was two extracts, Wallace’s a complete essay. Darwin hurried to finish his book in 1859 – his critics claim he did so to avoid being “scooped”, but Darwin later wrote: “I never did pick anyone’s pocket.”

Most mainstream scientists have taken Darwin’s side, with Richard Dawkins, the Oxford evolutionary biologist, calling the accusations “misplaced”.

“Darwin got it first, but foolishly he did not publish,” said Dawkins. “Wallace deserves credit but he was not the one who gathered the evidence into a book that actually changed people’s minds.”

This is the view taken in Creation, the new film with Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Darwin and his wife Emma.

In it, Darwin agonises over the implications of his theory, which challenged the conventional view of God’s creation, and shows him receiving Wallace’s letter. “He is very, very distressed but also relieved in a way that someone else has done it,” said Jeremy Thomas, the producer.

The film rejects the plagiarism charge. “It’s a nasty word in our trade,” said Thomas.

Like-minded

Alfred Russel Wallace’s supporters claim his ideas in an 1858 paper may have been plagiarised in 1859 by Darwin for On the Origin of Species. They include:

— Species are engaged in a struggle for existence

— Checks in nature impede a species from proliferating

— Climate affects the survival or extinction of a species

— Selective breeding of domesticated animals illustrates the process of evolution in the wild

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