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Ernst Mayr

Ernst Mayr Quotes

Biologist

German-American biologist and a pioneer in evolutionary biology, Ernst Mayr made significant contributions to the development of modern evolutionary theory. His research in systematics, speciation, and biological classification had a profound impact on the field.

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Famous Ernst Mayr Quotes

“I had found again and again that the most aberrant population of a species - often having reached species rank, and occasionally classified even as a separate genus - occurred at a peripheral location, indeed usually at the most isolated peripheral location.”

Found Species Population Isolated Again And Again Location

Book:Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

Source: Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

“The major novelty of my theory was its claim that the most rapid evolutionary change does not occur in widespread, populous species, as claimed by Most geneticists, but in small founder populations.”

Doe Theory Majors Claims Species Population Founders Rapids Novelty

Book:Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

Source: Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

“I feel that one species, mankind, doesn't have the right to exterminate”

Feels Mankind Species

Author:Ernst Mayr

“A new species develops if a population which has become geographically isolated from its parental species acquires during this period of isolation characters which promote or guarantee reproductive isolation when the external barriers break down.”

Ifs Character Science Break Evolution Periods Species Population Isolation Acquire Guarantees Barriers Isolated Breaking Down Parental

Book:Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

Source: Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

“A species consists of a group of populations which replace each other geographically or ecologically and of which the neighboring ones integrate or hybridise wherever they are in contact or which are potentially capable of doing so (with one or more of the populations) in those cases where contact is prevented by geographical or ecological barriers.”

Science Cases Groups Evolution Capable Species Population Contact Barriers Ecological Integrating

Author:Ernst Mayr

“A species is a reproductive community of populations reproductively isolated from others that occupies a specific niche in nature.”

Science Nature Community Species Population Isolation Isolated Niche

Book:The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance

Source: The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance

“There are a number of attributes of species and populations that are not of any particular selective advantage to any single individual in a population but that are of great advantage to the population as a whole.”

Whole Individual Numbers Particular Diversity Advantage Species Population Attributes Brotherhood Selective Unity In Diversity

Book:Evolution and the Diversity of Life: Selected Essays

Source: Evolution and the Diversity of Life: Selected Essays

“Paleontologists had long been aware of a seeming contradiction between Darwin's postulate of gradualism, confirmed by the work of population genetics, and the actual findings of paleontology. Following phyletic lines through time seemed to reveal only minimal gradual changes but no clear evidence for any change of a species into a different genus or for the gradual origin of an evolutionary novelty. Anything truly novel always seemed to appear quite abruptly in the fossil record.”

Source: One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought

“Wherever we look at the living biota … discontinuities are overwhelmingly frequent…The discontinuities are even more striking in the fossil record. New species usually appear in the fossil record suddenly, not connected with their ancestors by a series of intermediates.”

Looks Records Series Species Connected Ancestor Fossils Discontinuity

Author:Ernst Mayr

“The reduced variability of small populations is not always due to accidental gene loss, but sometimes to the fact that the entire population was started by a single pair or by a single fertilized female. These 'founders' of the population carried with them only a very small proportion of the variability of the parent population. This 'founder' principle sometimes explains even the uniformity of rather large populations, particularly if they are well isolated and near the borders of the range of the species.”

Source: Systematics and the Origin of Species, from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist

“Indeed, I was unable to find any evidence whatsoever of the occurrence of a drastic evolutionary acceleration and genetic reconstruction in widespread, populous species.”

Evidence Species Reconstruction Drastic Acceleration

Book:Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

Source: Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist

“Two forms or species are sympatric, if they occur together, that is if their areas of distribution overlap or coincide. Two forms (or species) are allapatric, if they do not occur together, that is if they exclude each other geographically. The term allopatric is primarily useful in denoting geographic representatives.”

Ifs Two Together Form Science Term Areas Species Representatives Distribution

Author:Ernst Mayr