ERNST MAYR'S BIOGEOGRAPHY: A LIFETIME OF STUDY

Abstract

For 75 years, from his 1926 Ph.D. dissertation on the range expansion of the Serin (Serinus serinus) in Europe, to 2001, when he and Jared Diamond published the 492-page book The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, and Biogeography, Ernst Mayr was interested in, thought about, and published on biogeography in general, and biogeography of birds in particular. Evolutionary biologists probably think that Mayr's most substantial contributions to 20th-century biology are (1) his views on species and speciation, as expounded in Systematics and the Origin of Species (Mayr 1942) and Animal Species and Evolution (Mayr 1963); (2) his ideas on evolution in general, as expressed in What Evolution Is (Mayr 2001); and (3) his understanding of the entire field of biology, which he reviewed in This is Biology (Mayr 1997). For their part, historians of science are likely to consider The Growth of Biological Thought (Mayr 1982) his masterpiece. Biogeographers and ornithologists, however, will add that another of Mayr's original and long-lasting contributions to biological thought consists of his many publications on biogeography, a field that fascinated him as much as, or even more than, systematics and evolution. Mayr's interests in biogeography have encompassed all the topics that are still current today in this field, such as continental drift and plate tectonics, geographic barriers, colonization, disjunctions, dispersal, ecological displacement, endemism, extinction, faunal buildup and decay, faunal elements, forest refuges, range expansion, and turnover. This is a remarkably broad range of subjects and, even more remarkably, he contributed original ideas to each of them. Here, Mayr's contributions to biogeography are reviewed through an analysis of his most important publications in this field. Resumen.Durante 75 anos, desde 1926 cuando publico su tesis doctoral sobre la expansion del rango de distribucion de Serinus serinus en Europa, hasta 2001 cuando conjuntamente con Jared Diamond publico el libro de 492 paginas, Las Aves del Norte de Melanesia: Especiacion, Ecologia y Biogeografia ("The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, and Biogeography"), Ernst Mayr ha estado interesado en, y ha publicado trabajos sobre biogeografia en general, y particularmente sobre biogeografia de aves. Es probable que los biologos evolutivos opinen que las contribuciones mas substanciales de Mayr al pensamiento biologico del siglo XX, fueron (1) sus ideas sobre especies y especiacion, las cuales fueron expuestas en Sistematica y el Origen de las Especies ("Systematics and the Origin of Species", Mayr 1942) y en Especies Animales y Evolucion ("Animal Species and Evolution", Mayr 1963); (2) su pensamiento sobre evolucion en general, expresado en Que es Evolucion ("What Evolution Is", Mayr 2001); y (3) su comprension de todos los campos de la biologia, la cual demostro en Esto es Biologia ("This is Biology", Mayr 1997). Los historiadores de la ciencia, por su parte, consideran como su obra maestra El Crecimiento del Pensamiento Biologico ("The Growth of Biological Thought", Mayr 1982). A su vez, los biogeografos y ornitologos, opinan que otras contribuciones de Mayr al pensamiento biologico, originales y permanentes en el tiempo, son sus publicaciones en biogeografia, un campo en el cual Mayr se intereso igualmente, o quizas mas que en el de la sistematica. El interes de Mayr sobre la biogeografia ha incluido todo el rango de temas que aun fascinan a los especialistas, como deriva continental y tectonica de placas, barreras geograficas, colonizacion, discontinuidades, dispersion, desplazamiento ecologico, endemismo, extincion, aumento o disminucion de faunas, elementos de la fauna, refugios forestales, cambios de la avifauna, extensiones de rango y substitucion de faunas. Es notable que no solo exploro tal amplio rango de temas, sino que ademas en cada uno de ellos, Mayr contribuyo con ideas originales. El objetivo de este articulo es evaluar las contribuciones de Mayr a la biogeografia, por medio de un analisis de sus publicaciones mas importantes en este campo. ^-mail: vuill@amnh.org