Ernst Mayr: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Ernst Mayr (born July 5, 1904) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. His work contributed to the conceptual revolution that led to the modern evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian evolution, and to the development of the biological species concept. His theory of peripatric speciation based on his work on birds is considered as the typical mode of speciation, and is the basis of the theory of punctuated equilibrium [1]. Apart from biological subjects, his writings include works on the philosophy and history of science in general and biology in particular.

He was born in Kempten, Germany.

As a traditionally trained biologist with little mathematical experience, Mayr was often highly critical of early mathematical approaches to evolution such as those of J. B. S. Haldane, famously calling in 1959 such approaches "bean bag genetics". He continues to reject the view that evolution is the mere change of gene frequencies in populations, maintaining that other factors such as reproductive isolations have to be taken into acccount. In a similar fashion Mayr is also to this day quite critical of molecular evolutionary studies such as those of Carl Woese.

In many of his writings, Mayr has rejected reductionism in evolutionary biology, arguing that evolutionary pressures act on the whole organism, not on single genes, and that genes can have different effects depending on the other genes present. He advocates a study of the whole genome rather than only isolated genes.

Current molecular studies in evolution and speciation indicate that although allopatric speciation seems to be the norm in groups (possibly those with greater mobility) such as the birds, there are numerous cases of sympatric speciation in many invertebrates (especially in the insects).

Even though he is a centenarian, he still continues to write books. At his 100th birthday, he was interviewed by Scientific American.

Books by Ernst Mayr include:

• The Growth Of Biological Thought
• Evolution and the Diversity of Life
• One Long Argument
• Populations Species and Evolution
• Toward a New Philosophy of Biology
• Principles of Systematic Zoology
• Systematics and the Origin of Species
• This Is Biology
• What Evolution Is

Publications

• 1923 Die Kolbenente (Nyroca rufina) auf dem Durchzuge in Sachsen. Ornithologische Monatsberichte 31:135-136
• 1923 Der Zwergfliegenschapper bei Greifswald. Ornithologische Monatsberichte 31:136
• 1926 Die Ausbreitung des Girlitz (Serinus canaria serinus L.) Ein Beitrag zur Tiergeographie. J. fur Ornithologie 74:571-671
• 1927 Die Schneefinken (Gattungen Montifringilla und Leucosticte) J. fur Ornithologie 75:596-619
• 1930 (by Ernst Hartert) List of birds collected by Ernst Mayr. Ornithologische Monatsberichte 36:27-128
• 1930 My Dutch New Guinea Expedition. 1928. Ornithologische Monatsberichte 36:20-26
• 1931 Die Vogel des Saurwagedund Herzoggebirges (NO Neuginea) Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin 17:639-723
• 1931 Birds collected during the Whitney SOuth Sea Expedition. XII Notes on Halcyon chloris and some of its subspecies. American Museum Novitates no 469
• 1932 A tenderfoot explorer in New Guinea. Natural History 32:83-97
• 1935 Bernard Altum and the territory theory. Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New York 45, 46:24-38
• 1940 Speciation phenomena in birds. American Naturalist 74:249-278
• 1941 Borders and subdivision of the Polynesian region as based on our knowledge of the distribution of birds. Proceedings of the 6th Pacific Scientific Congress 4:191-195
• 1941 The origin and history of the bird fauna of Polynesia. Proceedings of the 6th Pacific Scientific Congress 4:197-216
• 1942 Systematics and the Origin of Species. Columbia University Press. New York.
• 1943 A journey to the Solomons. Natural History 52:30-37,48
• 1944 Wallace's Line in the light of recent zoogeographics studies. Quarterly Review of Biology 19:1-14
• 1944 The birds of Timor and Sumba. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 83:123-194
• 1944 Timor and the colonization of Australia by birds. Emu 44:113-130
• 1946 History of the North American bird fauna. Wilson Bulletin 58:3-41
• 1946 The naturalist in Leidy's time and today. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 98:271-276
• 1947 Ecological factors in speciation. Evolution 1:263-288
• 1948 The new Sanford Hall. Natural History 57:248-254
• 1950 The role of the antennae in the mating behavior of female Drosophila. Evolution 4:149-154
• 1951 Introduction and Conclusion. Pages 85,255-258 in The problem of land connections across the South Atlantic with special reference to the Mesozoic. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 99:79-258
• 1954 Changes in genetic environment and evolution. Pages 157-180 in Evolution as a Process (J Huxley, A C Hardy and E B Ford Eds) Allen and Unwin. London
• 1955 Karl Jordan's contribution to current concepts in systematics and evolution. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 107:45-66
• 1957 Species concepts and definitions. Pages 371-388 in The Species Problem (E. Mayr ed). AAAS, Washington DC.
• 1959 The emergence of evolutionary novelties. Pages 349-380 in The Evolution of Life: Evolution after Darwin, vol 1 (S. Tax, ed) University of Chicago.
• 1959 Darwin and the evolutionary theory in Biology. Pages 1-10 in Evolution and Anthropology: A Centennial Appraisal (B J Meggers, Ed) The Anthropological Society of Washington, Washington DC.
• 1959 Agassiz, Darwin, and Evolution. Harvard Library Bulletin. 13:165-194
• 1961 Cause and effect in biology: Kinds of causes, predictability, and teleology are viewed by a practicing biologist. Science 134:1501-1506
• 1962 Accident or design: The paradox of evolution. Pages 1-14 in The Evolution of Living Organisms (G W Leeper, Ed) Melbourne University Press.
• 1963 Animal Species and Evolution. Harvard University Press.
• 1964 Introduction, Bibliography and Subject Pages vii-xxviii, 491-513 in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, by Charles Darwin. A Facsimile of the First Edition. Harvard University Press.
• 1965 Comments. In Proceedings of the Boston Colloguium for the Philosophy of Science, 1962-1964. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 2:151-156
• 1969 Discussion:Footnotes on the philosophy of biology. Philosophy of Science 36:197-202
• 1970 Populations, species and Evolution. Harvard University Press
• 1972 Continental drift and the history of the Austrailan bird fauna. Emu 72:26-28
• 1972 Geography and ecology as faunal determinants. Pages 549-561 in Proceedings XVth International Ornithological Congress (K H Voous, Ed) E J Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands.
• 1972 Larmarck revisited. Journal of the History of Biology. 5:55-94
• 1974 Teleological and teleonomic: A new analysis. Boston studies in the Philosophy of Science 14:91-117
• 1976 Evolution and the Diversity of Life. Selected Essays. Harvard University Press.
• 1978 Tenure: A sacred cow ? Science 199:1293
• 1980 How I became a Darwinian, Pages 413-423 in The Evolutionary Synthesis (E Mayr and W Provine, Eds) Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• 1981 Evolutionary biology. Pages 147-162 in The joys of Research (W. Shripshire Jr, Ed) Smithsonian Institution Press.
• 1982 The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance. Harvard University Press.
• 1984 Evolution and ethics. Pages 35-46 in Darwin, Mars and Freud:Their influence on Moral Theory (A L Caplan and B Jennings, Eds) Plenum Press, New York.
• 1985 Darwin's five theories of evolution. Pages 755-772 in The Darwinian Heritage (D. Kohn, Ed) Princeton University Press.
• 1985 How biology differs from the physical sciences. Pages 43-63 in Evolution at a Crossroads: The New Biology and the New Philosophy of Science (D. J. Depew and B H Weber, Eds) MIT Press, Cambridge.
• 1988 Toward a new philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist. Harvard University Press.
• 1988 The why and how of species. Biology and Philosophy 3:431-441
• 1991 One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• 1992 The idea of teleology. Journal of the History of Ideas 53:117-135
• 1996 The autonomy of Biology: The position of biology among the sciences. Quarterly Review of Biology 71:97-106
• 1997 This is Biology: The Science of the Living World. Harvard University Press.
• 2001 The philosophical foundations of Darwinism. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 145:488-495
• 2001 What Evolution Is. Basic Books. New York
• 2004 What makes biology unique? Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline. Cambridge University Press. New York.
• 1951 with Dean Amadon, A classfication of recent birds. American Museum Novitates no 1496
• 1991 with P Ashlock Principles of Systematic Zoology revised ed. McGraw-Hill, NY
• 1994 with Walter J Bock. Provisional classifications v. standard avian sequences: Heurisitics and communication in ornithology. Ibis 136:12-18
• 2002 with walter J Bock. Classifications and other ordering systems. Zeitschrift fur Zoologische Systematic und Evolutionsforschung 40:1-25
• 2001 with Jared Diamond. Birds of Northern Melanesia. Speciation, Ecology and and Biogeography. Oxford University Press, NY.
• 1953 with E G Linsley and R L Usinger. Methods and Principles of Systematica Zoology. McGraw-Hill, New York.
• 1929 with W Meise. Zeitschriftenverzeichnis des Museums fur Naturkunde Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin 14:1-187
• 1980 with W B Provine, Eds. The Evolutionary Synthesis. Harvard University Press.
• 1956 with C B Rosen. Geographic variation and hybridization in populations of Bahama snails (Cerion). American Museum Novitates no 1806.

References

• Menno Schilthuizen Frogs, Flies, and Dandelions: Speciation-The Evolution of New Species. Oxford ISBN 0198503938