Ernst Mayr Quotes

Not to be confused with Ernst Mayr , Ernst Mayer, Ernst Meyer, Ernest Mayer or Ernest May.Ernst Walter Mayr was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, philosopher of biology, and historian of science. His work contributed to the conceptual revolution that led to the modern evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics, systematics, and Darwinian evolution, and to the development of the biological species concept.

Although Charles Darwin and others posited that multiple species could evolve from a single common ancestor, the mechanism by which this occurred was not understood, creating the species problem. Ernst Mayr approached the problem with a new definition for species. In his book Systematics and the Origin of Species he wrote that a species is not just a group of morphologically similar individuals, but a group that can breed only among themselves, excluding all others. When populations within a species become isolated by geography, feeding strategy, mate choice, or other means, they may start to differ from other populations through genetic drift and natural selection, and over time may evolve into new species. The most significant and rapid genetic reorganization occurs in extremely small populations that have been isolated .

His theory of peripatric speciation , based on his work on birds, is still considered a leading mode of speciation, and was the theoretical underpinning for the theory of punctuated equilibrium, proposed by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. Mayr is sometimes credited with inventing modern philosophy of biology, particularly the part related to evolutionary biology, which he distinguished from physics due to its introduction of history into science. Wikipedia  

✵ 5. July 1904 – 3. February 2005
Ernst Mayr: 8   quotes 0   likes

Famous Ernst Mayr Quotes

“The funny thing is if in England, you ask a man in the street who the greatest living Darwinian is, he will say Richard Dawkins. And indeed, Dawkins has done a marvelous job of popularizing Darwinism. But Dawkins' basic theory of the gene being the object of evolution is totally non-Darwinian. I would not call him the greatest Darwinian”

First response to the following remark by EDGE: It seems to me that Darwin is much better known in England than in the United States. Books about Darwin sell well and people debate the subjects. Here in America what passes for intellectual life doesn't necessarily include reading and having an appreciation of Darwin.
What evolution is: Talk with Ernst Mayr (2001)

“According to the concept of transformational evolution, first clearly articulated by Lamarck, evolution consists of the gradual transformation of organisms from one condition of existence to another”

Ernst Mayr (1992) " Speciational Evolution or Punctuated Equilibria http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/mayr_punctuated.html" in: Albert Somit and Steven Peterson (1992) The Dynamics of Evolution, p. 21-48

“Life is simply the reification of the process of living.”

Attributed to Ernst Mayr in: artin John Ingrouille, Bill Eddie (2006) Plants. p. 400

Similar authors

Richard Dawkins photo
Richard Dawkins 322
English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin photo
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin 64
French philosopher and Jesuit priest
Otto Stern photo
Otto Stern 2
German physicist
Erich Maria Remarque photo
Erich Maria Remarque 63
German novelist
Marlene Dietrich photo
Marlene Dietrich 28
German-American actress and singer
Ernst Ruska photo
Ernst Ruska 2
German physicist
Werner Heisenberg photo
Werner Heisenberg 42
German theoretical physicist
Ernst Jünger photo
Ernst Jünger 16
German writer
Hermann Hesse photo
Hermann Hesse 168
German writer
Herta Müller photo
Herta Müller 28
German-Romanian novelist, poet and essayist