It is curious how often erroneous theories have had a beneficial effect for particular branches of science. — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
most scientific problems are far better understood by studying their history than their logic. — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
The history of science knows scores of instances where an investigator was in the possession of all the important facts for a… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
Isolating mechanisms are biological properties of individuals that prevent the interbreeding of populations that are actually or potentially sympatric. — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
Biology can be divided into the study of proximate causes, the study of the physiological sciences (broadly conceived), and into the study… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
Two forms or species are sympatric, if they occur together, that is if their areas of distribution overlap or coincide. Two forms… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
A new species develops if a population which has become geographically isolated from its parental species acquires during this period of isolation… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
“The funny thing is if in England, you ask a man in the street who the greatest living Darwinian is, he will… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
A species consists of a group of populations which replace each other geographically or ecologically and of which the neighboring ones integrate… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
The reduced variability of small populations is not always due to accidental gene loss, but sometimes to the fact that the entire… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
“I published that theory [of speciational evolution] in a 1954 paper…and I clearly related it to paleontology. Darwin argued that the fossil… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
“{ On to contributions to evolutionary biology of 18th century French scientist, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon } He was not an… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
“Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century.” — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
A species is a reproductive community of populations reproductively isolated from others that occupies a specific niche in nature. — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
The most consequential change in man's view of the world, of living nature and of himself came with the introduction, over a… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
All interpretations made by a scientist are hypotheses, and all hypotheses are tentative. They must forever be tested and they must be… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
There is more to biology than rats, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis, and E. coli. — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
“The funny thing is if in England, you ask a man in the street who the greatest living Darwinian is, he will say Richard… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
The history of science knows scores of instances where an investigator was in the possession of all the important facts for a new theory… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
most scientific problems are far better understood by studying their history than their logic. — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
Evolution, thus, is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection. No longer is a fixed object transformed, as in transformational… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
In Earth, among millions of lineages or organisms and perhaps 50 billion speciation events, only one led to high intelligence ; this makes me… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
I have the honesty to say I'm an Atheist. There is nothing that supports the idea of a personal God. — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
All I claimed was that when a drastic change occurs, it occurs in a relatively small and isolated population. — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
A new species develops if a population which has become geographically isolated from its parental species acquires during this period of isolation characters which… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
According to the concept of transformational evolution, first clearly articulated by Lamarck, evolution consists of the gradual transformation of organisms from one condition of… — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts — Ernst Mayr Copy Share Image
![“I published that theory [of speciational evolution] in a 1954 paper…and I clearly related it to paleontology. Darwin argued that the fossil record is very incomplete because some species fossilize better than others... I noted that you are never going to find evidence of a small local population…” quote by Ernst Mayr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/870/ernst-mayr-13171_biology_i-published-that-theory-of-speciational_1411110.jpg)
