Ernst Walter Mayr (; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005)
was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary
biologists. He was also a renowned
taxonomist, tropical explorer,
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
,
philosopher of biology
The philosophy of biology is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. Although philosophers of science and philosophers generally have ...
, and
historian of science. His work contributed to the conceptual revolution that led to the
modern evolutionary synthesis of
Mendelian genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar work ...
,
systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic t ...
, and
Darwinian evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
, and to the development of the
biological species concept.
Although
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
and others posited that multiple
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
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'' (1942) he wrote that a species is not just a group of
morphologically similar individuals, but a group that can
breed
A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...
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
Genetic drift, also known as allelic drift or the Wright effect, is the change in the frequency of an existing gene variant (allele) in a population due to random chance.
Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and there ...
and
natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...
, and over time may evolve into new species. The most significant and rapid genetic reorganization occurs in extremely small populations that have been isolated (as on islands).
His theory of
peripatric speciation (a more precise form of
allopatric speciation
Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...
which he advanced), 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
In evolutionary biology, punctuated equilibrium (also called punctuated equilibria) is a theory that proposes that once a species appears in the fossil record, the population will become stable, showing little evolutionary change for most of ...
, proposed by
Niles Eldredge and
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Goul ...
. Mayr is sometimes credited with inventing modern
philosophy of biology, particularly the part related to
evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life ...
, which he distinguished from
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...
due to its introduction of (natural) history into science.
Biography
Mayr was the second son of Helene Pusinelli and Dr. Otto Mayr. His father was a jurist (District Prosecuting
Attorney at
Würzburg) but took an interest in natural history and took the children out on field trips. He learnt all the local birds in Würzburg from his elder brother Otto. He also had access to a natural history magazine for amateurs, ''Kosmos''. His father died just before he was thirteen. The family then moved to
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
and he studied at the Staatsgymnasium ("Royal Gymnasium" until 1918) in Dresden-Neustadt and completed his high school education there. In April 1922, while still in high school, he joined the newly founded Saxony Ornithologists' Association. Here he met Rudolf Zimmermann, who became his ornithological mentor. In February 1923, Mayr passed his high school examination (Abitur) and his mother rewarded him with a pair of binoculars.
[Haffer 2007:22]
On 23 March 1923 on one of the lakes of
Moritzburg, the Frauenteich, he spotted what he identified as a
red-crested pochard. The species had not been seen in Saxony since 1845 and the local club argued about the identity. Raimund Schelcher (1891–1979) of the club then suggested that Mayr visit his classmate
Erwin Stresemann
Erwin Friedrich Theodor Stresemann (22 November 1889, in Dresden – 20 November 1972, in East Berlin) was a German naturalist and ornithologist. Stresemann was an ornithologist of extensive breadth who compiled one of the first and most compreh ...
on his way to Greifswald, where Mayr was to begin his medical studies.
After a tough interrogation, Stresemann accepted and published the sighting as authentic. Stresemann was very impressed and suggested that, between semesters, Mayr could work as a volunteer in the ornithological section of the museum. Mayr wrote about this event, "It was as if someone had given me the key to heaven."
He entered the
University of Greifswald in 1923 and, according to Mayr himself, "took the medical curriculum (to satisfy a family tradition) but after only a year, he decided to leave medicine and enrolled at the Faculty of Biological Sciences."
[Mayr & Provine, 1998:p. 413.] Mayr was endlessly interested in ornithology and "chose Greifswald at the Baltic for my studies for no other reason than that ... it was situated in the ornithologically most interesting area."
Although he ostensibly planned to become a physician, he was "first and foremost an ornithologist."
During the first semester break Stresemann gave him a test to identify treecreepers and Mayr was able to identify most of the specimens correctly. Stresemann declared that Mayr "was a born
systematist
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic tre ...
". In 1925, Stresemann suggested that he give up his medical studies, in fact he should leave the faculty of medicine and enrol into the faculty of Biology and then join the Berlin Museum with the prospect of bird-collecting trips to the tropics, on the condition that he completed his doctoral studies in 16 months. Mayr completed his doctorate in ornithology at the
University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
under Dr. Carl Zimmer, who was a full professor (
Ordentlicher Professor), on 24 June 1926 at the age of 21. On 1 July he accepted the position offered to him at the museum for a monthly salary of 330.54 Reichsmark.
At the International Zoological Congress at Budapest in 1927, Mayr was introduced by Stresemann to banker and naturalist
Walter Rothschild
Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937) was a British banker, politician, zoologist and soldier, who was a member of the Rothschild family. As a Zionist leader, he was pres ...
, who asked him to undertake an expedition to
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
on behalf of himself and the
American Museum of Natural History in New York. In New Guinea, Mayr collected several thousand bird skins (he named 26 new bird species during his lifetime) and, in the process also named 38 new
orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of floweri ...
species. During his stay in New Guinea, he was invited to accompany the
Whitney South Seas Expedition to the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...
. Also, while in New Guinea, he visited the Lutheran missionaries Otto Thiele and Christian Keyser, in the Finschhafen district; there, while in conversation with his hosts, he uncovered the discrepancies in
Hermann Detzner's popular book ''Four Years among Cannibals: New Guinea'', in which Detzner claimed to have seen the interior, discovered several species of flora and fauna, while remaining only steps ahead of the Australian patrols sent to capture him. He returned to Germany in 1930.
Mayr moved to the United States in 1931 to take up a curatorial position at the American Museum of Natural History, where he played the important role of brokering and acquiring the
Walter Rothschild
Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937) was a British banker, politician, zoologist and soldier, who was a member of the Rothschild family. As a Zionist leader, he was pres ...
collection of bird skins, which was being sold in order to pay off a blackmailer. During his time at the museum he produced numerous publications on bird taxonomy, and in 1942 his first book ''
Systematics and the Origin of Species'', which completed the evolutionary synthesis started by Darwin.
After Mayr was appointed at the American Museum of Natural History, he influenced American ornithological research by mentoring young birdwatchers. Mayr was surprised at the differences between American and German birding societies. He noted that the German society was "far more scientific, far more interested in life histories and breeding bird species, as well as in reports on recent literature."
[Barrow, Mark V. (1998), ''A Passion for Birds: American Ornithology after Audubon''. Princeton University Press. .]
Mayr organized a monthly seminar under the auspices of the Linnean Society of New York. Under the influence of J.A. Allen, Frank Chapman, and Jonathan Dwight, the society concentrated on taxonomy and later became a clearing house for bird banding and sight records.
Mayr encouraged his Linnaean Society seminar participants to take up a specific research project of their own. Under Mayr's influence one of them, Joseph Hickey, went on to write ''A Guide to Birdwatching'' (1943). Hickey remembered later, "Mayr was our age and invited on all our field trips. The heckling of this German foreigner was tremendous, but he gave tit for tat, and any modern picture of Dr E. Mayr as a very formal person does not square with my memory of the 1930s. He held his own." A group of eight young birdwatchers from
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...
later became the
Bronx County Bird Club
The Bronx County Bird Club (or BCBC) was a small informal club of birdwatching, birders based in the Bronx, New York, which was active between 1924 and the 1940s, with residual activity through to 1978. Its founders were described by ''The New Yor ...
, led by
Ludlow Griscom. "Everyone should have a problem" was the way one Bronx County Bird Club member recalled Mayr's refrain.
Mayr said of his own involvement with the local birdwatchers: "In those early years in New York when I was a stranger in a big city, it was the companionship and later friendship which I was offered in the Linnean Society that was the most important thing in my life."
Mayr also greatly influenced the American ornithologist
Margaret Morse Nice. Mayr encouraged her to correspond with European ornithologists and helped her in her landmark study on
song sparrows. Nice wrote to
Joseph Grinnell in 1932, trying to get foreign literature reviewed in the ''Condor'': "Too many American ornithologists have despised the study of the living bird; the magazines and books that deal with the subject abound in careless statements, anthropomorphic interpretations, repetition of ancient errors, and sweeping conclusions from a pitiful array of facts. ... in Europe the study of the living bird is taken seriously. We could learn a great deal from their writing." Mayr ensured that Nice could publish her two-volume ''Studies in the Life History of the Song Sparrow''. He found her a publisher, and her book was reviewed by
Aldo Leopold, Joseph Grinnell, and
Jean Delacour
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* Jea ...
. Nice dedicated her book to "My Friend Ernst Mayr."
[
Mayr joined the ]faculty
Faculty may refer to:
* Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage)
* Faculty (division)
A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject ...
of Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1953, where he also served as director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology from 1961 to 1970. He retired in 1975 as emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
professor of zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...
, showered with honors. Following his retirement, he went on to publish more than 200 articles, in a variety of journals—more than some reputable scientists publish in their entire careers; 14 of his 25 books were published after he was 65. Even as a centenarian, he continued to write books. On his 100th birthday, he was interviewed by ''Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...
'' magazine.
Mayr died on 3 February 2005 in his retirement home in Bedford, Massachusetts, after a short illness. He had married fellow German Margarete "Gretel" Simon in May 1935 (they had met at a party in Manhattan in 1932), and she assisted Mayr in some of his work.
Gretel died in 1990. He was survived by two daughters (Christa Menzel and Susanne Harrison), five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
The awards that Mayr received include the National Medal of Science, the Balzan Prize
The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organizations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the br ...
, the Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society, the International Prize for Biology, the Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, and the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science. In 1939 he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. He was awarded the 1946 Leidy Award from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He was awarded the Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature coll ...
's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958 and the Linnaean Society of New York's inaugural Eisenmann Medal
The Eisenmann Medal is awarded by the Linnaean Society of New York (LSNY) in recognition of the recipient's ornithological excellence and encouragement of amateur efforts in ornithology and birding.
The medal commemorates the ornithologist and pro ...
in 1983. For his work, ''Animal Species and Evolution'', he was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology study published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Giraud Elliot, it was first awarded in 1917.
L ...
from the National Academy of Sciences in 1967. Mayr was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1988.[ In 1995 he received the of the ]American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
, of which he was already a member.
Mayr never won a Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
, but he noted that there is no prize for evolutionary biology and that Darwin would not have received one, either. (In fact, there is no Nobel Prize for biology.) Mayr did win a 1999 Crafoord Prize. It honors basic research in fields that do not qualify for Nobel Prizes and is administered by the same organization as the Nobel Prize. In 2001, Mayr received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
Mayr was co-author of six global reviews of bird species new to science This article describes bird species discovered since 1900. Before the 20th century, and into its early decades, the pace of discovery (and "discovery") of new species was fast; during this period, with numerous collecting expeditions into species-ri ...
(listed below).
Mayr said he was an atheist in regards to "the idea of a personal God" because "there is nothing that supports t.
Ideas
As a traditionally-trained biologist, Mayr was often highly critical of early mathematical approaches to evolution, such as those of J.B.S. Haldane
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolo ...
, and famously called such approaches "beanbag genetics" in 1959. He maintained that factors such as reproductive isolation had to be taken into account. In a similar fashion, Mayr was also quite critical of molecular evolution
Molecular evolution is the process of change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins across generations. The field of molecular evolution uses principles of evolutionary biology and population genet ...
studies such as those of Carl Woese. Current molecular studies in evolution and speciation indicate that although allopatric speciation
Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...
is the norm, there are numerous cases of sympatric speciation
Sympatric speciation is the evolution of a new species from a surviving ancestral species while both continue to inhabit the same geographic region. In evolutionary biology and biogeography, sympatric and sympatry are terms referring to organi ...
in groups with greater mobility, such as birds. The precise mechanisms of sympatric speciation, however, are usually a form of microallopatry enabled by variations in niche occupancy among individuals within a population.
In many of his writings, Mayr 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 advocated a study of the whole genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...
, rather than of only isolated genes. After articulating the biological species concept in 1942, Mayr played a central role in the species problem debate over what was the best species concept
The species problem is the set of questions that arises when biologists attempt to define what a species is. Such a definition is called a species concept; there are at least 26 recognized species concepts. A species concept that works well for se ...
. He staunchly defended the biological species concept against the many definitions of "species" that others proposed.
Mayr was an outspoken defender of the scientific method
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientifi ...
and was known to critique sharply science on the edge. As a notable example, in 1995, he criticized the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other p ...
(SETI), as conducted by fellow Harvard professor Paul Horowitz
Paul Horowitz (born 1942) is an American physicist and electrical engineer, known primarily for his work in electronics design, as well as for his role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (see SETI).
Biography
At age 8, Horowitz achi ...
, as being a waste of university and student resources for its inability to address and answer a scientific question. Over 60 eminent scientists, led by Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ex ...
, rebutted the criticism.
Mayr rejected the idea of a gene-centered view of evolution and starkly but politely criticised Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ...
's ideas:
Mayr insisted that the entire genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...
should be considered as the target of selection, rather than individual gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...
s:
Currently recognised taxa named in his honour
* Bismarck black myzomela (''Myzomela psammelaena ernstmayri'') Meise, 1929 - a subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
of bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
, a honeyeater
The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New G ...
, family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Meliphagidae, confined to several small islands to the west of the Admiralty Islands, in western Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...
, northeast of New Guinea.
* Mayr's forest rail
Mayr's forest rail (''Rallicula mayri'') is a species of bird in the family Sarothruridae
Sarothruridae is a family of small- to medium-sized ground-living birds found mostly in Madagascar and sub-Saharan Africa, with the genus ''Rallicula'' ...
(''Rallicula mayri'') (Hartert, 1930) - a species of bird found in New Guinea.
* Mayr's honeyeater (''Ptiloprora mayri'') Hartert, 1930 - a species of bird found in New Guinea.
* Mayr's swiftlet
Mayr's swiftlet (''Aerodramus orientalis'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae.
It is found in New Ireland and Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Isl ...
(''Aerodramus orientalis'') (Mayr, 1935) - a species of bird found in New Ireland and Guadalcanal.
* Ernst Mayr's water rat
Ernst Mayr's water rat (''Leptomys ernstmayri'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae, named for evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr.
It is found in the Foja Mountains of Papua Province, Indonesia, and in the mountains of northeastern Papua ...
(''Leptomys ernstmayri'') Rümmler, 1932 - a species of rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...
, of the family Muridae, from the Foja Mountains
The Foja Mountains (Foja Range, Foya Mountains) ( id, Pegunungan Foja) are located just north of the Mamberamo river basin in Papua, Indonesia. The mountains rise to , and have 3,000 square kilometers of old growth tropical rainforest in the in ...
of Papua Province
Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri. It is bordered by ...
, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
, and Central Cordillera, Adelbert Range
Adelbert Range is a mountain range in Madang Province, north-central Papua New Guinea. The highest point of the mountains is at .
The Northern Adelbert languages and Southern Adelbert languages are spoken in the region.
Fauna and flora
As with ...
, and Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
.
* a roundworm - ''Poikilolaimus ernstmayri'' Sudhaus & Koch, 2004 - a new species of nematode, family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Rhabditidae, associated with termite
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes ( eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blat ...
s of the genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
Reticulitermes
''Reticulitermes'' is a termite genus in the family Rhinotermitidae. They are found in most temperate regions on Earth including much of Asia and the Middle East, Western Europe, and all of North America.
Caste descriptions
''Reticulitermes'' ...
, on Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
.
* New Ireland rail (''Gallirallus
''Gallirallus'' is a genus of rails that live in the Australasian-Pacific region. The genus is characterised by an ability to colonise relatively small and isolated islands and thereafter to evolve flightless forms, many of which became extinct ...
ernstmayri'') †
A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species). It is one of the modern descendan ...
(Kirchman & Steadman, 2006) - a relatively large, probably flightless, extinct rail, family Rallidae, known from subfossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
remains found on prehistoric archeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
sites, in caves on New Ireland, in the Bismarck Archipelago, western Oceania.[Hume, J.P., 2017, ''Extinct Birds'' (2nd edition). Bloomsbury Natural History. 576 pp. .])
* Star Mountains worm-eating snake (''Toxicocalamus
''Toxicocalamus'' is a genus of snakes in the family Elapidae. The genus is endemic to New Guinea.
Description
Most species of ''Toxicocalamus'' are relatively small, the largest specimen known being the holotype of the recently described ''T ...
ernstmayri'') O'Shea, Parker & Kaiser, 2015 - a 1.2 m, rare and secretive, venom
Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a st ...
ous snake from the family Elapidae, believed to feed exclusively of earthworm
An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. T ...
s, particularly the giant earthworms of the Megascolecidae. The etymology
Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...
reads: The species name ''ernstmayri'' is a patronym honoring the German-American ornithologist, systematist, and evolutionary thinker Ernst Mayr (1904–2005). There are several connections linking Ernst Mayr to this new species of ''Toxicocalamus'', which make him, and this snake, the ideal candidates for a patronym. First, Mayr himself visited New Guinea, and during the late 1920s he spent over 2 years conducting fieldwork in an area now part of PNG, as a member of a joint Rothschild–AMNH expedition focusing on birds of paradise (Aves, Passeriformes, Paradisaeidae), during which he collected many new bird and orchid species. Second, the holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...
of ''T. ernstmayri'' has been housed in the MCZ collection, mislabeled as '' Micropechis ikaheka'', after having arrived and been accessioned in June 1975, the month and year that Mayr retired. Third, the true identity of this specimen was recognized by one of us (MOS) during a visit to the MCZ in May 2014, undertaken with the financial support of an Ernst Mayr Travel Grant from Harvard University, awarded to enable examination of the ''Toxicocalamus'' holdings at the MCZ and the AMNH, the two U.S. institutions where Mayr worked. Finally, 2015, the publication year of this description, marks the decennial
An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints ...
of Mayr's passing at age 100, and naming a New Guinea snake after him seems a suitable tribute.
* an assassin bug - '' Bagauda ernstmayri'' Kulkarni & Ghate, 2016 - a species of cavernicolous, thread-legged assassin bug, known only from Satara, in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...
State, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
.
* a genus of pseudoscorpions - '' Ernstmayria'' Curcic et al., 2006
* a species of spider - '' Cebrennus mayri'' Jäger, 2000
* a species of damselfly - '' Palaiargia ernstmayri'' Lieftinck, 1972
* a species of bird lice - ''Anaticola ernstmayri
''Anaticola'' is a genus of lice belonging to the family Philopteridae, which was first described in 1935 by Theresa Clay.
The species of this genus are found in Europe and New Zealand.
Species:
*'' Anaticola angustolimbatus''
*'' Anaticola ...
'' Eichler, 1954
* a species of earwig - '' Irdex ernstmayri'' Günther, 1930
Summary of Darwin's theory
Darwin's theory of evolution is based on key facts and the inferences drawn from them, which Mayr summarised as follows:
:* Every species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce, the population would grow (fact).
:* Despite periodic fluctuations, populations remain roughly the same size (fact).
:* Resources such as food are limited and are relatively stable over time (fact).
:* Struggle for survival ensues (inference).
:* Individuals in a population vary significantly from one another (fact).
:* Much of the variation is heritable (fact).
:* Individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and less likely to reproduce; individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce and leave their heritable traits to future generations, which produces the process of natural selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...
(fact).
:* This slowly effected process results in populations changing to adapt to their environments, and ultimately, these variations accumulate over time to form new species (inference).
In relation to the publication of Darwin's ''Origins of Species'', Mayr identified philosophical implications of evolution:
:* Evolving world, not a static one.
:* Implausibility of creationism.
:* Refutation that the universe has purpose.
:* Defeating the justifications for a human-centric world.
:* Materialistic processes explain the impression of design.
:* Population thinking replaces essentialism. He is called the Darwin of 20th century.
Bibliography
Books
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* Mayr, Ernst. & William B. Provine, (eds) (1980). ''The Evolutionary Synthesis: Perspectives on the Unification of Biology'',
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Global reviews of species new to science
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Other notable publications
*1923
Die Kolbenente (''Nyroca rufina'') auf dem Durchzuge in Sachsen
. ''Ornithologische Monatsberichte'' 31:135–136
*1923 "Der Zwergfliegenschnäpper bei Greifswald". ''Ornithologische Monatsberichte'' 31:136
*1926 "Die Ausbreitung des Girlitz (''Serinus canaria serinus'' L.) Ein Beitrag zur Tiergeographie". ''J. für Ornithologie'' 74:571–671
*1927 "Die Schneefinken (Gattungen ''Montifringilla'' und ''Leucosticte'')" ''J. für Ornithologie'' 75:596–619
*1929 with W Meise. ''Zeitschriftenverzeichnis des Museums für Naturkunde Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin'' 14:1–187
*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 Vögel des Saruwaged und 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
*193
"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, 46:24–3
*1938 ''Birds of the Crane Pacific expedition'', Ernst Mayr and Sidney Camras, Zoological Series of the Field Museum of Natural History, Volume XX, No. 34.
*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
*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
*194
"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
*1951 with Dean Amadon, "A classification of recent birds". ''American Museum Novitates'' no. 1496
*1953 with E G Linsley and R L Usinger. ''Methods and Principles of Systematica Zoology''. McGraw-Hill, New York.
*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
*1956 with C B Rosen. "Geographic variation and hybridization in populations of Bahama snails (''Cerion'')". ''American Museum Novitates'' no 1806.
*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.
*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
*1972 ''Continental drift and the history of the Australian 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 ''Lamarck 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
*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.
*1980 with W B Provine, Eds. ''The Evolutionary Synthesis''. Harvard University Press.
*1981 ''Evolutionary biology. Pages 147–162 in The Joys of Research'' (W. Shripshire Jr, Ed.) Smithsonian Institution 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. In D. Kohn, ed., ''The Darwinian Heritage'', Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 755–772.
*1985. How biology differs from the physical sciences. In D. J. Depew and B H Weber, eds., ''Evolution at a Crossroads: The New Biology and the New Philosophy of Science'', Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, pp. 43–63.
*1988. The why and how of species. ''Biology and Philosophy'' 3:431–441
*1992. The idea of teleology. ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 53:117–135
*1994. with W.J. Bock. Provisional classifications v. standard avian sequences: heuristics and communication in ornithology. ''Ibis'' 136:12–18
*1996
What is a species, and what is not?
''Philosophy of Science'' 63 (June): 262–277.
*1996
The autonomy of biology: the position of biology among the sciences
''Quarterly Review of Biology'' 71:97–106
*1997
The objects of selection
''Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA'' 94 (March): 2091–94.
*1999
Crafoord Prize lecture, September 23, 1999.
*2000
''Bioscience'' 50 (Oct. 2000): 895–897.
*2001.
*2002. with Walter J Bock. Classifications and other ordering systems. ''Zeitschrift Zool. Syst. Evolut-Forsch''. 40:1–25
See also
* American philosophy
* Biosemiotics
* Evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
* List of American philosophers
This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States.
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* List of centenarians (scientists and mathematicians)
* Species Problem
* Philosophy of biology
* Proximate and ultimate causation
References
Citations
Sources
; Works cited
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* Reprint of 1980 edition (Mayr and William B. Provine, eds.) with new preface.
Further reading
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External links
Ernst Mayr Biography and Interview on American Academy of Achievement
Ernst Mayr
telling his life story a
Web of Stories
"80 Years of Watching the Evolutionary Scenery"
– by Ernst Mayr, ''Science''.
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Ernst Mayr obituary in the Economist
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Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayr, Ernst Walter
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