Both charles darwin and alfred russel wallace acknowledged the influence of the economist thomas malthus in the development of their ideas about natural selection. specifically, malthus's ideas about geometric population growth implied that: organisms should have as many offspring as possible. only the largest and strongest individuals would survive. resources in every generation would be limited, therefore individuals in every generation would have to compete for those resources. all of these choices are correct. organisms should have a few, very fit offspring who can compete for scarce resources.