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Ernst Mayr, Biologist Extraordinaire A reprint from American Scientist the magazine of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society This reprint is provided for personal and noncommercial use. For any other use, please send a request to Permissions, American Scientist, P.O. Box 13975, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, U.S.A., or by electronic mail to [email protected]. ©Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society and other rightsholders © Lynn Margulis MACROSCOPE ERNST MAYR, BIOLOGIST EXTRAORDINAIRE Lynn Margulis rnst Mayr, Harvard University professor all over the Boston area and beyond. Several fa- emeritus and biologist extraordinaire, died mous evolutionary biologists, colleagues, many peacefully in Bedford, Massachusetts, on of whom were among his former students and EFebruary 3. He was 100 years old and had been are now professional leaders, came to pay tribute. associated with the biology department at Har- What struck me at this well-attended, enthusiastic vard since he joined its faculty in 1953. An era in gathering was that, among the marvelous lectur- evolutionary thought, called variously the New ers in an all-day session about the evolutionary Synthesis, neo-Darwinism or the Modern Synthe- panorama of life on Earth, the most moving and sis, came to an end with his passing. informative of the talks, in my opinion, was the The death of the last of the great evolutionary final statement by Ernst Mayr himself! biologists of the 20th century concluded an intel- Mayr was born in Kempten, Germany (Bavar- lectual movement in the study of evolution—a ia), to an educated family, many of whom were point of view whose most striking aspect was the physicians. His father, Otto Mayr, was a judge extent to which all of the evolutionary history of and a bird-watching enthusiast. During his school life on Earth was perceived as a subdiscipline holidays Ernst worked at the Berlin Zoological of biology. Whereas Thomas Kuhn, author of Museum at the invitation of Erwin Stresemann, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, might have the best ornithologist in the country at that time. called it a paradigm, Ludwik Fleck (author of Following his two years of study at the University Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact, 1935) of Greifswald, oriented toward medicine as urged would have recognized the correlated demise of by his family, he completed his doctoral program neo-Darwinism and the death of Professor Mayr in 16 months at the University of Berlin. Why did as a paradigm lost. he opt to study at Greifswald? Why did he go An accomplished naturalist, Ernst Mayr began north to a relatively unknown academic institu- his work in 1923 at the age of 19. The last of his tion? Because his real interests were in the study 25 books, a collection of essays called What Makes of natural history, especially watching birds. Biology Unique? Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline, was published by Cambridge Nature Not Books University Press in the summer of 2004, one Like Darwin, Mayr was always fascinated by live month after his 100th birthday! This fact attests to animals in nature. He was particularly compelled Mayr’s intellectual talents and unwavering inter- by the question: How do species originate? Some est in science, its history and philosophy. three years before he died, he told me about his And last May, shortly before Mayr’s centenary delight when the University of Berlin called him birthday in July, an open celebration of his work back to celebrate the 75th anniversary of receipt and life was held in the auditorium of the Min- of his doctorate degree. I asked him if I might eralogical and Geological Museum at Harvard. accompany him to attend the scientific program. The place was crowded with admirers, specta- “Oh, you don’t want to do that,” he remarked. tors, students from universities and colleges from “There will be no science, just endless and bor- ing talks by administrators.” Lynn Margulis, Distinguished Professor in the Department of We had been discussing modes of speciation, and Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and presi- I had shown him our 10-minute film on Mixotricha dent-elect of Sigma Xi, still works with students and colleagues on paradoxa, an Australian termite protist, in his daugh- her theory of the origin of cilia from symbiotic spirochetes. An avid ter Susanne Harrison’s kitchen in Bedford. I had ex- environmentalist, she investigates extensions of James E. Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis. An extended version of this essay is in press in plained “symbiogenesis” as a mode of speciation. “I Mètode, the scientific magazine of the University of Valencia in get it, I get it,” he said, first pensively, then excitedly Burjassot, Spain. Address: Department of Geosciences, Morrill as he watched the five or more integrated microbial Science Center, University of Massachusetts, 611 North Pleasant symbionts that comprise a single Mixotricha protist Street, Amherst, MA 01003-9297. Internet: [email protected] swim away as a single individual. 200 American Scientist, Volume 93 © Lynn Margulis I tried to distinguish “symbiosis” from “sym- and cranberries grow in the bog there, we know biogenesis” for him. “Oh, you don’t have to tell what the pH must be.” A proud naturalist, Mayr me what ‘symbiosis’ is!” he exclaimed, a little was a superb writer who communicated primar- impatiently. “I studied symbiosis with Paul Buch- ily by handwritten notes. He was the last of the ner in Greifswald, who was a young instructor neo-Darwinians to revere nature, work inside her there” for a very short time before he moved on, and with her. His life always extended beyond the eventually to Italy. Buchner, author of the semi- computer and mathematical models. nal work Endosymbiose der Tiere mit pflanzlichen Mikroorganismen (1953), was the founder of mod- What Evolution Is ern symbiosis research. We celebrated the publication of our books, both Mayr took seriously Louis Agassiz’s admoni- brought out by Basic Books, in the summer of tion. He studied “Nature not Books” between 2002. At his lovely retirement village, with the 1928 and 1930 when he collected more than 3,000 help of many friends as well as family (including birds in the South Pacific, mainly the Solomon Is- Mayr’s daughters Susanne and biologist Christa lands and New Guinea. He learned to live off the Menzel of Simsbury, Connecticut), we had a won- land. After removal of the skin and feathers in derful bibliophilic party. For our book (Lynn Mar- the preparation of “study skins” and taxidermic gulis and Dorion Sagan, Acquiring Genomes: A The- samples for species identification, morphological ory of the Origins of Species), Mayr had written the analysis and shipment to museum collections, fascinating, not uncritical, foreword. But Mayr’s nothing would be wasted: The innards went to book was what we all came to celebrate. For read- pot for dinner. That Ernst Mayr ate more birds of ers unfamiliar with his comprehensive opus span- paradise than any other modern ornithologist is ning more than 75 years of scientific productivity a well-known anecdote. on a panoply of evolutionary themes, I recom- Mayr’s work in the field, especially with avian mend that you begin with this one, his 24th: What diversity, led him to his most familiar contribution Evolution Is. Designed for the curious, nonspecial- to science, documented in his two dozen single- ist reader, it is a fine read for those interested in authored or edited books and more than 600 sci- the achievements of importance in 20th-century entific publications. He framed the animal species evolutionary biology. concept. Members of the same species can mate Not immodestly, Mayr considered his 2002 and breed to produce fertile offspring. Even plants trade book to be the single best summary of un- and animals that greatly resemble each other are contested, documented evolutionary thought. not to be assigned to the same species if they are “Evolution” refers to the results of experimental, not interfertile. On the other hand, animals that observational and theoretical science that sup- look very different from each other (such as Great port the common ancestry of all life on Earth. Yes, Danes and Yorkshire terriers) if they produce fer- of course, people are primates directly related tile offspring do belong to the same species. to other great apes such as gorillas, chimps and He told me about the wood duck and the bonobos. Yes, of course, humans were not made green-headed mallards illustrated on his conser- by an all-seeing, all-knowing white-man deity. vation-society shower curtain—that they were Indeed, evidence points to the possibility that perfectly fertile, and a mating between these several species of nonhumans became extinct be- birds resulted in normal numbers of healthy cause of our aggressive, even murderous, greedy chicks. He said that nevertheless he agreed that ancestors. These early Homo sapiens, related to us, the two very different-looking ducks must be displayed traits that still abound! assigned, as they are, to two different species. The questions and answers, at the end of the Why? Because, he insisted, even when they live book especially, help any reader, even one naive on the same pond, such as the duck pond here with respect to science, to understand the basic in Amherst, they only mate with their own kind. concepts of this most important area of study. His definition of species, he insisted, is “organ- Mayr’s reasonableness is especially pertinent to- isms are members of the same species that, in day in the face of ignorance, prejudice and reli- nature, mate to produce fertile offspring.” gious fundamentalism. For those who try to deny He always emphasized the importance of the the validity of science that uses carefully collected environment.
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