Ernst Mayr Quotes About Evolution

Quotes about: Evolution

• According to the concept of transformational evolution, first clearly articulated by Lamarck, evolution consists of the gradual transformation of organisms from one condition of existence to another.

  Ernst Mayr

  Firsts, Evolution, Transformation

  "The Dynamics of Evolution: The Punctuated Equilibrium Debate in the Natural and Social Sciences". Book by Albert Somit and Steven Peterson, p. 21-48, "Speciational Evolution or Punctuated Equilibria", 1992.

• Evolution, thus, is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection. 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

  Generations, Variation, New Start

  "Toward a new philosophy of biology: observations of an evolutionist". Book by Ernst Mayr, p. 457, 1988.

• Evolution as such is no longer a theory for a modern author. It is as much a fact as that the earth revolves around the sun.

  Ernst Mayr

  Atheism, Society, Earth

  Ernst Mayr (2007). “What Makes Biology Unique?: Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline”, p.100, Cambridge University Press

• The most consequential change in man's view of the world, of living nature and of himself came with the introduction, over a period of some 100 years beginning only in the 18th century, of the idea of change itself, of change over periods of time: in a word, of evolution.

  Ernst Mayr

  Nature, Science, Men

• 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.

  Ernst Mayr

  Character, Science, Population

  Ernst Mayr (1988). “Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist”, p.442, Harvard University Press

• 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.

  Ernst Mayr

  Science, Groups, Population

• The issue, as correctly emphasized by Carl Sagan, is the probability of the evolution of high intelligence and an electronic civilization on an inhabited world. Once we have life (and almost surely it will be very different from life on Earth), what is the probability of its developing a lineage with high intelligence? On Earth, among millions of lineages of organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence; this makes me believe in its utter improbability.

  Ernst Mayr

  Believe, Civilization, Issues

• Evolution ... is opportunistic, hence unpredictable.

  Ernst Mayr

  Religion, Atheism, Evolution

• Given the fact of evolution, one would expect the fossils to document a gradual steady change from ancestral forms to the descendants. But this is not what the paleontologist finds. Instead, he or she finds gaps in just about every phyletic series.

  Ernst Mayr

  Gaps, Fossils, Facts

  Ernst Mayr (2001). “What Evolution is”, p.14, Basic Books

• New gene pools are generated in every generation, and evolution takes place because the successful individuals produced by these gene pools give rise to the next generation.

  Ernst Mayr

  Successful, Glowing, Giving

  Ernst Mayr (1988). “Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist”, p.457, Harvard University Press

• As a consequence, geneticists described evolution simply as a change in gene frequencies in populations, totally ignoring the fact that evolution consists of the two simultaneous but quite separate phenomena of adaptation and diversification.

  Ernst Mayr

  Two, Population, Ignoring Facts

  Ernst Mayr (1988). “Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist”, Harvard University Press

• Evolution thus is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection.

  Ernst Mayr

  Variation, Evolution, Process

  Ernst Mayr (1988). “Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist”, p.457, Harvard University Press

• anyone who writes about "Darwin's theory of evolutionin the singular, without segregating the theories of gradual evolution, common descent, speciation, and the mechanism of natural selection, will be quite unable to discuss the subject competently.

  Ernst Mayr

  Writing, Society, Common

• 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.

  Ernst Mayr

  Long, Population, Different

  Ernst Mayr (1991). “One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought”, p.138, Harvard University Press

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