A report on Ernst Mayr
One of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists.
- Ernst Mayr42 related topics with Alpha
Natural selection
10 linksDifferential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype.
Differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype.
Ernst Mayr recognised the key importance of reproductive isolation for speciation in his Systematics and the Origin of Species (1942).
Evolution
10 linksChange in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.
Change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations.
Defined by evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr in 1942, the BSC states that "species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups."
Modern synthesis (20th century)
6 linksThe early 20th-century synthesis reconciling Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's ideas on heredity in a joint mathematical framework.
The early 20th-century synthesis reconciling Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's ideas on heredity in a joint mathematical framework.
The synthesis was defined differently by its founders, with Ernst Mayr in 1959, G. Ledyard Stebbins in 1966 and Theodosius Dobzhansky in 1974 offering differing numbers of basic postulates, though they all include natural selection, working on heritable variation supplied by mutation.
Species
5 linksBasic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity.
Basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity.
Ernst Mayr emphasised reproductive isolation, but this, like other species concepts, is hard or even impossible to test.
Taxonomy (biology)
3 linksScientific study of naming, defining and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics.
Scientific study of naming, defining and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics.
Thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined "beta taxonomy" as the classification of ranks higher than species.
Peripatric speciation
2 linksMode of speciation in which a new species is formed from an isolated peripheral population.
Mode of speciation in which a new species is formed from an isolated peripheral population.
The concept of peripatric speciation was first outlined by the evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr in 1954.
Punctuated equilibrium
2 linksTheory that proposes that once a species appears in the fossil record, the population will become stable, showing little evolutionary change for most of its geological history.
Theory that proposes that once a species appears in the fossil record, the population will become stable, showing little evolutionary change for most of its geological history.
Their paper built upon Ernst Mayr's model of geographic speciation, I. Michael Lerner's theories of developmental and genetic homeostasis, and their own empirical research.
Reproductive isolation
5 linksThe mechanisms of reproductive isolation are a collection of evolutionary mechanisms, behaviors and physiological processes critical for speciation.
The mechanisms of reproductive isolation are a collection of evolutionary mechanisms, behaviors and physiological processes critical for speciation.
Zoologist Ernst Mayr classified the mechanisms of reproductive isolation in two broad categories: pre-zygotic for those that act before fertilization (or before mating in the case of animals) and post-zygotic for those that act after it.
Systematics and the Origin of Species
1 linksSystematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist is a book written by zoologist and evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, first published in 1942 by Columbia University Press.
Species concept
3 linksSet of questions that arises when biologists attempt to define what a species is.
Set of questions that arises when biologists attempt to define what a species is.
Edward Poulton anticipated many ideas on species that today are well accepted, and that were later more fully developed by Theodosius Dobzhansky and Ernst Mayr, two of the architects of the modern synthesis.