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Populations, espèces et évolution
Representative of the international acclaim accorded Ernst Mayr's Animal Species and Evolution, published in 1963, is Sir Julian Huxley's description of it as "a magistral book... certainly the most important study of evolution that has appeared in many years--perhaps since the publication of The Origin of Species." In his extraordinary book, Mr. Mayr fully explored, synthesized, and evaluated man's knowledge about the nature of animal species and the part they play in the process of evolution.
Now, in this long-awaited abridged edition, Mr. Mayr's definitive work is made available to the interested nonspecialist, the college student, and the general reader. The author has retained the dominant themes of his original study--themes now more widely accepted than they were in 1963: the species is the most important unit of evolution; individuals (and not genes) are the targets of natural selection, hence the fitness of "a" gene is a nebulous if not misleading concept; and the most important genetic phenomena in species are species-specific regulatory systems that give species internal cohesion.
Each of the twenty chapters of the original edition has been revised; six have been extensively reworked. Discussions of peripheral subjects and massive citations of the literature have been eliminated, but the glossary has been greatly expanded. The focal point of the volume is, naturally, the species--a reproductively isolated aggregate of interbreeding populations. Presenting an overview of evolutionary biology in Chapter 1, Mr. Mayr then considers the nature of species, their population structure, their biological interactions, the multiplication of species, and their role in evolution.
Because of the impossibility of experimenting with man and because an understanding of man's biology is indispensable for safeguarding his future, emphasis throughout the book is placed on those findings from higher animals which are directly applicable to man. The last chapter, "Man as a Biological Species," is of particular interest to the general reader. Mr. Mayr concludes that while modern man appears to be as well adapted for survival purposes as were his ancestors, there is much evidence to suggest that he is threatened by the loss of his most typically human characteristics.
Now, in this long-awaited abridged edition, Mr. Mayr's definitive work is made available to the interested nonspecialist, the college student, and the general reader. The author has retained the dominant themes of his original study--themes now more widely accepted than they were in 1963: the species is the most important unit of evolution; individuals (and not genes) are the targets of natural selection, hence the fitness of "a" gene is a nebulous if not misleading concept; and the most important genetic phenomena in species are species-specific regulatory systems that give species internal cohesion.
Each of the twenty chapters of the original edition has been revised; six have been extensively reworked. Discussions of peripheral subjects and massive citations of the literature have been eliminated, but the glossary has been greatly expanded. The focal point of the volume is, naturally, the species--a reproductively isolated aggregate of interbreeding populations. Presenting an overview of evolutionary biology in Chapter 1, Mr. Mayr then considers the nature of species, their population structure, their biological interactions, the multiplication of species, and their role in evolution.
Because of the impossibility of experimenting with man and because an understanding of man's biology is indispensable for safeguarding his future, emphasis throughout the book is placed on those findings from higher animals which are directly applicable to man. The last chapter, "Man as a Biological Species," is of particular interest to the general reader. Mr. Mayr concludes that while modern man appears to be as well adapted for survival purposes as were his ancestors, there is much evidence to suggest that he is threatened by the loss of his most typically human characteristics.
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First published January 1, 1970
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About the author
Ernst W. Mayr
102 books163 followersFor the computer scientist, see Ernst Wilhelm Meyr
Ernst Walter Mayr (July 5, 1904 – February 3, 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, 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 the concept of 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 only among themselves, excluding all others. When populations within a species become isolated by geography, feeding strategy, mate selection, 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 (as on islands).
His theory of peripatric speciation (a more precise form of allopatric speciation 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, 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 (natural) history into science.
Ernst Walter Mayr (July 5, 1904 – February 3, 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, 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 the concept of 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 only among themselves, excluding all others. When populations within a species become isolated by geography, feeding strategy, mate selection, 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 (as on islands).
His theory of peripatric speciation (a more precise form of allopatric speciation 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, 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 (natural) history into science.
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January 13, 2025
AN ABRIDGEMENT, BUT ALSO A REVISION/EXPANSION, OF HIS EARLIER BOOK
Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) was one of the leading evolutionary biologists, whose concept of speciation as a key to evolutionary development was crucial for such scientists as Stephen Jay Gould. He wrote in the Preface of this 1969 book, “I have been urged to provide an abridged edition [of his 800-page ‘Animal Species and Evolution’ book] that would be more handy for class use and for the reader who does not want the detailed documentation. To satisfy this demand is the object of [this book]… At first, there was no intention to combine a revision of ‘Animal Species’ with … this abridgement. Yet, during the work on many of the chapters a rather extensive revision became inevitable… [It has] three dominant themes: (1) the species is the most important unit of evolution; (2) individuals [and not genes] are the target of natural selection… and (3) the most important genetic phenomena in species are species-specific epistatic systems that give species internal cohesion.”
He begins Chapter 1, “The theory of evolution is quite rightly called the greatest unifying theory in biology. The diversity of organisms, similarities and differences between kinds of organisms, patterns of distribution and behavior, adaptation and interaction, all this was merely a bewildering chaos of facts until given meaning by the evolutionary theory. There is no area in biology in which that theory does not serve as an ordering principle.” (Pg. 1)
He says, “It never occurred to the saltationists that their own typological and antiselectionist interpretation of evolution could be much further from the truth than the late Darwinian viewpoint of their adversaries. Mutations do not guide evolution, nor are their effect on the phenotype always sufficiently drastic to be visible. Recombination makes far more new phenotypes available for selection than does mutation, and the kinds of mutations and recombinations that can occur in a given organism are severely restricted. These statements … may be quite startling to those who are unaware of the modern developments and who are still fighting the battle of the last generation.” (Pg. 6)
He explains, “The idea that hybrids always are sterile… is quite erroneous. More decisive evidence for the importance of isolating mechanisms for animals other than sterility is the observation by field naturalists that males and females of a species are brought together by sensory stimuli, that these sensory stimuli are ineffective between the males of one species and the females of another, and that it is extremely rare for the male of one species to copulate with the female of another species. The sterility barrier, even when present, is only rarely tested.” (Pg. 56)
He summarizes, “we come to the conclusion that a species consisting of several million individuals is bound to have a couple of mutations per locus in every generation except at the most inert loci. However, mutations producing drastic changes of the phenotype are rare and any tendency to produce such mutations would certainly be selected against very strongly… There is now abundant evidence… that such comparatively high rates of phenotypically slight mutations actually do occur in most organisms.” (Pg. 100)
He proposes, “Natural selection, simply, is the differential perpetuation of genotypes. Most of the objections raised against natural selection and its role in evolution becomes invalid and irrelevant as soon as the typological formulation of natural selection is replaced by one based on the probability of reproductive success of an individual consequence of its genetic properties.” (Pg. 107)
He observes, “Natural selection is apparently defenseless against genotypes that are successful reproducers but do not add to the survival value of the species as whole. This essential weakness of natural selection is a potential danger in every species, including mankind.” (Pg. 119)
He states, “if chance has any influence on the direction of evolution, it is that it ‘jars’ it at frequent intervals and may occasionally be responsible for a jump to another track. Let us remember that evolutionary change is a two-factor process. One stage is the generation of genetic variation… The second stage is the choosing of the phenotypes that will produce the next generation. On this level natural selection dominates, while chance plays a far less important … role. Chance causes disorder, selection causes order. Chance is disoriented, selection is directional… Chance is often destructive, selection is frequently creative. Yet both chance and evolution are statistical phenomena and thus they not only coexist but also, one might even say, collaborate harmoniously.” (Pg. 128)
He explains, “When the form of branching is an important taxonomic character… a single somatic mutation may in one step produce a considerable alteration of the phenotype. Such a mutation, of course, does not produce a new species, because the gametes carrying the new mutation are not reproductively isolated from those carrying the ‘parental’ growth gene. Changes of the phenotype are often saltational… The reorganization of the gene pool, required for successful speciation, is … never saltational.” (Pg. 251)
Of the ideas of Goldschmidt and Schindewolf, he comments, “The theory of macrogenesis can never be proved, since it is obviously impossible to witness the occurrence of a major jump, particularly one that achieves simultaneously reproductive isolation and ecological compatibility… The believers in macrogenesis consider the chief support of their thesis to be the ‘fact’ that all new types appear in the fossil record suddenly and abruptly. These types are not connected with the ancestral types by intermediates… and cannot be derived from them by gradual evolution. [Bernhard] Rensch and [George G.] Simpson have shown how erroneous this claim is. As knowledge of the fossil forms has improved, it has been possible to demonstrate in one case after another that one ‘type’ can be derived from a previously existing one. The fossil record is admittedly very incomplete… However, among organisms with hard parts that date from the geological periods in which the fossil record is more complete, so-called missing links have been found time after time.” (Pg. 252)
He summarizes, “Each species is a biological experiment. The probability is very high that the new niche into which it shifts is an evolutionary dead-end street… The evolutionary significance of species is now quite clear. Although the evolutionist may speak of broad phenomena, such as trends, adaptations, specializations, and regressions, they are really not separable from the progression of entities that display these trends, the species. The species are the real units of evolution… And speciation... is the method by which evolution advances. Without speciation there would be no diversification of the organic world, no adaptive radiation, and very little evolutionary progress. The species is, then, the keystone of evolution.” (Pg. 374)
He also adds, “Typological thinking has been rampant in recent controversies concerning differences between human races with respect to intelligence… [It is] inexcusable … to assign to individuals characteristics that are the mean values of the races to which they belong. Even if mean differences between human races [could] be established for mental traits… most individuals of a given race would fall in the area of overlap with other races. Every individual must, therefore, be treated on the basis of his or her own characteristics, never those of his race.” (Pg. 402)
He concludes, “Indeed, is man as he now exists the end point of an evolutionary development? One might claim, or at least hope, that we are still in the midst of an evolution toward a more nearly perfect stage of that which is now represented by Home sapiens with all of his glaring imperfections. It is obvious that we must consider the emergence of man a continuous process.” (Pg. 390)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying evolutionary theory.
Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) was one of the leading evolutionary biologists, whose concept of speciation as a key to evolutionary development was crucial for such scientists as Stephen Jay Gould. He wrote in the Preface of this 1969 book, “I have been urged to provide an abridged edition [of his 800-page ‘Animal Species and Evolution’ book] that would be more handy for class use and for the reader who does not want the detailed documentation. To satisfy this demand is the object of [this book]… At first, there was no intention to combine a revision of ‘Animal Species’ with … this abridgement. Yet, during the work on many of the chapters a rather extensive revision became inevitable… [It has] three dominant themes: (1) the species is the most important unit of evolution; (2) individuals [and not genes] are the target of natural selection… and (3) the most important genetic phenomena in species are species-specific epistatic systems that give species internal cohesion.”
He begins Chapter 1, “The theory of evolution is quite rightly called the greatest unifying theory in biology. The diversity of organisms, similarities and differences between kinds of organisms, patterns of distribution and behavior, adaptation and interaction, all this was merely a bewildering chaos of facts until given meaning by the evolutionary theory. There is no area in biology in which that theory does not serve as an ordering principle.” (Pg. 1)
He says, “It never occurred to the saltationists that their own typological and antiselectionist interpretation of evolution could be much further from the truth than the late Darwinian viewpoint of their adversaries. Mutations do not guide evolution, nor are their effect on the phenotype always sufficiently drastic to be visible. Recombination makes far more new phenotypes available for selection than does mutation, and the kinds of mutations and recombinations that can occur in a given organism are severely restricted. These statements … may be quite startling to those who are unaware of the modern developments and who are still fighting the battle of the last generation.” (Pg. 6)
He explains, “The idea that hybrids always are sterile… is quite erroneous. More decisive evidence for the importance of isolating mechanisms for animals other than sterility is the observation by field naturalists that males and females of a species are brought together by sensory stimuli, that these sensory stimuli are ineffective between the males of one species and the females of another, and that it is extremely rare for the male of one species to copulate with the female of another species. The sterility barrier, even when present, is only rarely tested.” (Pg. 56)
He summarizes, “we come to the conclusion that a species consisting of several million individuals is bound to have a couple of mutations per locus in every generation except at the most inert loci. However, mutations producing drastic changes of the phenotype are rare and any tendency to produce such mutations would certainly be selected against very strongly… There is now abundant evidence… that such comparatively high rates of phenotypically slight mutations actually do occur in most organisms.” (Pg. 100)
He proposes, “Natural selection, simply, is the differential perpetuation of genotypes. Most of the objections raised against natural selection and its role in evolution becomes invalid and irrelevant as soon as the typological formulation of natural selection is replaced by one based on the probability of reproductive success of an individual consequence of its genetic properties.” (Pg. 107)
He observes, “Natural selection is apparently defenseless against genotypes that are successful reproducers but do not add to the survival value of the species as whole. This essential weakness of natural selection is a potential danger in every species, including mankind.” (Pg. 119)
He states, “if chance has any influence on the direction of evolution, it is that it ‘jars’ it at frequent intervals and may occasionally be responsible for a jump to another track. Let us remember that evolutionary change is a two-factor process. One stage is the generation of genetic variation… The second stage is the choosing of the phenotypes that will produce the next generation. On this level natural selection dominates, while chance plays a far less important … role. Chance causes disorder, selection causes order. Chance is disoriented, selection is directional… Chance is often destructive, selection is frequently creative. Yet both chance and evolution are statistical phenomena and thus they not only coexist but also, one might even say, collaborate harmoniously.” (Pg. 128)
He explains, “When the form of branching is an important taxonomic character… a single somatic mutation may in one step produce a considerable alteration of the phenotype. Such a mutation, of course, does not produce a new species, because the gametes carrying the new mutation are not reproductively isolated from those carrying the ‘parental’ growth gene. Changes of the phenotype are often saltational… The reorganization of the gene pool, required for successful speciation, is … never saltational.” (Pg. 251)
Of the ideas of Goldschmidt and Schindewolf, he comments, “The theory of macrogenesis can never be proved, since it is obviously impossible to witness the occurrence of a major jump, particularly one that achieves simultaneously reproductive isolation and ecological compatibility… The believers in macrogenesis consider the chief support of their thesis to be the ‘fact’ that all new types appear in the fossil record suddenly and abruptly. These types are not connected with the ancestral types by intermediates… and cannot be derived from them by gradual evolution. [Bernhard] Rensch and [George G.] Simpson have shown how erroneous this claim is. As knowledge of the fossil forms has improved, it has been possible to demonstrate in one case after another that one ‘type’ can be derived from a previously existing one. The fossil record is admittedly very incomplete… However, among organisms with hard parts that date from the geological periods in which the fossil record is more complete, so-called missing links have been found time after time.” (Pg. 252)
He summarizes, “Each species is a biological experiment. The probability is very high that the new niche into which it shifts is an evolutionary dead-end street… The evolutionary significance of species is now quite clear. Although the evolutionist may speak of broad phenomena, such as trends, adaptations, specializations, and regressions, they are really not separable from the progression of entities that display these trends, the species. The species are the real units of evolution… And speciation... is the method by which evolution advances. Without speciation there would be no diversification of the organic world, no adaptive radiation, and very little evolutionary progress. The species is, then, the keystone of evolution.” (Pg. 374)
He also adds, “Typological thinking has been rampant in recent controversies concerning differences between human races with respect to intelligence… [It is] inexcusable … to assign to individuals characteristics that are the mean values of the races to which they belong. Even if mean differences between human races [could] be established for mental traits… most individuals of a given race would fall in the area of overlap with other races. Every individual must, therefore, be treated on the basis of his or her own characteristics, never those of his race.” (Pg. 402)
He concludes, “Indeed, is man as he now exists the end point of an evolutionary development? One might claim, or at least hope, that we are still in the midst of an evolution toward a more nearly perfect stage of that which is now represented by Home sapiens with all of his glaring imperfections. It is obvious that we must consider the emergence of man a continuous process.” (Pg. 390)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying evolutionary theory.
May 7, 2008
this is one of the great works in scientific thinking/ the development of the modern theory of evolutions is an amazing process of understanding the reality of the universe.
While the theory has changed and grown and been modified and there are elements that i think are not correct, as picture of how scientific theories develop, this along with quantum mechanics are the gold standard.
While the theory has changed and grown and been modified and there are elements that i think are not correct, as picture of how scientific theories develop, this along with quantum mechanics are the gold standard.
August 27, 2012
Nice practical book on the implications of evolution.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews