Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist is a book written by zoologist and evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, first published in 1942 by Columbia University Press.[1] The book became one of the canonical publications on the modern synthesis and is considered to be exemplary of the original expansion of evolutionary theory.[2] The book is considered one of his greatest and most influential.[3]
Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist contains a reassessment of previous evidence regarding the mechanisms of biological evolution.[4] The points of view of modern systematics are compared with views from other life science fields, attempting to bridge the gap between different biological disciplines.[4] In his book, Mayr attempts to summarize the knowledge within his field of systemics, investigates the main factors involved in taxonomic work, and presents some evidence regarding the origin of species[4] Species concepts are discussed and Mayr proposes a definition of the species category where he considers species groups of natural populations which are reproductively isolated from each other.[5] This concept Ernst Mayr proposes here is now commonly referred to as the biological species concept. The biological species concept defines a species in terms of biological factors such as reproduction, taking into account ecology, geography, and life history; it remains an important and useful idea in biology, particularly for animal speciation.[2] Despite acceptance and approval of his species definition, his input did little to resolve the long-standing disagreements concerning the issue of species concepts.[5]
With his addition of the formulation of his species definition, Ernst Mayr was able to express the question of the species definition as a biological rather than topological issue[6] After the publication of his species concept, Mayr became a major figure in the biological as well as the philosophical components of the debate regarding the problem of species concepts.[7]
Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist was created after Ernst Mayr's Jesup lectures in New York City.[8] Mayr's Jesup lectures were held alongside the botanist Edgar Anderson, who discussed evolutionary theory from the perspective of those with a background in botany.[8] The lectures discussed population thinking, evolutionary dynamics between plants and animals, and other central issues in what the field that later came to be known as Evolutionary Synthesis.[8] These Jesup lectures by Ernst Mayr and Edgar Anderson were meant as a follow-up to Theodosius Dobhanzky's own Jesup lectures in 1936 which resulted in his book Genetics and the Origin of Species, published in 1937.[8][9] Edgar Anderson did not publish his talks from the 1941 Jesup lectures with Mayr.[8]
In December 2004 the National Academy of Sciences held a colloquium in honour of Mayr's 100th birthday at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Science and Engineering in Irvine, California.[10] Systematics and the Origin of Species: On Ernst Mayr's 100th Anniversary was published by National Academies Press in 2005 in commemoration of this event.[10] The lectures published in this collection explore the main topics discussed in Ernst Mayr's Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist.[2] These topics include reproductive isolation, the modern species concept, genomics, and other related subjects within evolutionary biology.[10]