| Code | PX4914 |
| Dates | 1904 - 2005 |
| Person Name | Mayr; Ernst (1904 - 2005); Zoologist and Author |
| Surname | Mayr |
| Forenames | Ernst |
| Epithet | Zoologist and Author |
| Activity | He began his career in Berlin and emigrated to the United States in 1931, where, until 1953, he was associated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York. From 1953 to 1975 he was professor of zoology at Harvard. In 1940, Mayr refined the definition of the term species to "groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups." Along with Theodosius Dobzhansky and George Gaylord Simpson, he helped formulate the synthetic theory of evolution, putting together the theories of Charles Darwin and the genetic principles of Gregor Mendel.
Ernst Mayr was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was at the same time a naturalist, an explorer, an ornithologist and science historian.
His work contributed to the conceptual revolution that led to the modern evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian evolution, and to the development of the biological species concept.
Neither Darwin nor anyone else in his time knew the answer to the 'species problem' : how could different species evolve from one common ancestor. Ernst Mayr brought the solution by defining the concept 'species'. In his book 'Systematics and the Origin of Species' (1942) he wrote that a species is not a group of morphologically similar individuals, but a group that can breed only among themselves, excluding all others. When groups of identical individuals get isolated, the sub-populations will start to differ by genetic drift and natural selection over a period of time, and thereby evolve into new species.
His theory of peripatric speciation based on his work on birds is considered as one typical mode of speciation, and is the basis of the theory of punctuated equilibrium.
Apart from biological subjects, his writings include works on the philosophy and history of science in general and of biology in particular. [source: wikipedia] |
| RefNo | Title |
| DF/ZOO/236/4/452 | African Atlas Correspondence: Mayr, Ernst, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (in Research Files) |
| DF/ZOO/236/4/491 | African Atlas Correspondence: Struthio [&] Podiceps includes letters from: Mayr, Ernst; Sauer, Dr E G Franz; Storer, Dr Robert W; Ash, Dr John; Clapham, Dr Christopher |
| DF/TM/3/11/59 | Correspondence M: Maulik; Mayr; Mavromoustakis; Marshall |
| DF/ZOO/236/4/497 | African Atlas Correspondence: Threskiornis, Geronticus, Bostrychia, Plegadis, Platalea, Phoenicopterus includes letter from: Mayr, Dr Ernst |
| DF/TM/3/11/92 | Correspondence L-M: Moss; Littlewood; Mayr; Murphy; Morris; Maxwell; McCain |
| DF/TM/3/11/92/3 | Mayr |
| DF/TM/3/11/58 | Correspondence M: Mayr; Maxwell; Moss; Museum Bookstore Ltd; Minall; Marshall; Moore |
| DF/TM/3/11/59/2 | Mayr, E |
| DF/TM/3/11/58/1 | Mayr, E |
| DF/ZOO/230/122/48 | Portugal: Museu Nacional de Historia Natural (Museu Bocage), Lisbon |
| DF/ENT/332/1/33 | Mather, B; Mayr, E |
| DF/ZOO/236/4/350 | External Correspondence (Cotingidae): Mayr, Ernst |
| DF/ZOO/230/122/293 | USA (American Museum of Natural History): New York |
| DF/ZOO/236/4/55 | External Correspondence: Mayr, Ernst |
| DF/ZOO/236/4/493 | African Atlas Correspondence: Botaurus, Tigriornis, Ixobrychus, Nycticorax includes letters from Payne R B; Mayr, Dr Ernst |
| DF/ZOO/232/5/16/10/16 | Mayr, E. |
| DF/TM/3/19 | Tring Uncatalogued - Subject, Event or Publication Files |
| DF/ZOO/230/122/265 | USA (Massachusetts): Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge |
| DF/ZOO/236/6/81 | External Correspondence (Mollusca and Birds): Mayr, Professor Ernst |