As a traditionally trained biologist with little mathematical experience, Mayr was often highly critical of early mathematical approaches to evolution such as those of J.B.S. Haldane, famously calling in 1959 such approaches "beanbag genetics". He maintained that factors such as reproductive isolation...
Ernst Mayr (1904鈥 ), naturalist and ornithologist since his early youth, is one of the 'architects' of the synthetic theory of evolution of the 1940s. His main contribution was the analysis of the origin of species, i.e. the causes of biodiversity. The historical roots of these ideas ...
Through his writings, Mayr considered the fruitful integration of innovative ideas, clear and deep thinking, natural historical facts, historical background, and philosophy as indispensable ingredients in the study of evolution. Mayr's single most important contribution to evolutionary biology, highlighting...
The first period was initiated by the publication of Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937) by the Russian-born American evolutionist Theodosius Dobzhansky (1880–1959). This period was “essentially completed in 1947, as demonstrated by the Princeton conference and by Rensch's book” (Mayr,...
During the mid 20th century, Ernst Mayr was one of the 'architects' of the synthetic theory of evolution. His contribution to the new theory was the conceptual unification of the processes of the adaptation of populations (anagenesis, phyletic evolution) and the origin of new species (clado...