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,...
Wherever we look at the living biota … discontinuities are overwhelmingly frequent…The discontinuities are even more striking in the fossil record. Ernst Mayr
Wherever we look at the living biota … discontinuities are overwhelmingly frequent…The discontinuities are even more striking in the fossil record.
No longer is a fixed object transformed, as in transformational evolution, but an entirely new start is, so to speak, made in every generation. Ernst Mayr
No longer is a fixed object transformed, as in transformational evolution, but an entirely new start is, so to speak, made in every generation.
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. Ernst Mayr
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.
Life is simply the reification of the process of living. Ernst Mayr
Life is simply the reification of the process of living.
There is more to biology than rats, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis, and E. coli. Ernst Mayr
There is more to biology than rats, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis, and E. coli.
Isolating mechanisms are biological properties of individuals that prevent the interbreeding of populations that are actually or potentially sympatric. Ernst Mayr
Isolating mechanisms are biological properties of individuals that prevent the interbreeding of populations that are actually or potentially sympatric.
A species is a reproductive community of populations reproductively isolated from others that occupies a specific niche in nature. Ernst Mayr
A species is a reproductive community of populations reproductively isolated from others that occupies a specific niche in nature.
Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts. Ernst Mayr
Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts.
It is curious how often erroneous theories have had a beneficial effect for particular branches of science. Ernst Mayr
It is curious how often erroneous theories have had a beneficial effect for particular branches of science.