Life is simply the reification of the process of living.
Ernst MayrRead
There are a number of attributes of species and populations that are not of any particular selective advantage to any single individual in a population but that are of great advantage to the population as a whole.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Certain traits may not benefit individual organisms but can provide significant advantages to the entire population or species.
Ernst Mayr's quote highlights the distinction between individual evolutionary success and the collective advantage traits can offer to populations. Some characteristics may not directly improve an individual's survival or reproductive success, yet they play a crucial role in the overall fitness and resilience of the species, thus ensuring its longevity and adaptation in changing environments.
Themes
EvolutionPopulationTraitsSurvivalSpeciesAdaptation
In practice
Example use cases
In a biology class when discussing evolution and natural selection.
More from Ernst Mayr
All quotes →The most consequential change in man's view of the world, of living nature and of himself came with the introduction, over a period of some 100 years beginning only in the 18th century, of the idea of change itself, of change over periods of time: in a word, of evolution.
Ernst MayrRead
Evolution, thus, is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection. No longer is a fixed object transformed, as in transformational evolution, but an entirely new start is, so to speak, made in every generation.
Ernst MayrRead
Wherever we look at the living biota … discontinuities are overwhelmingly frequent…The discontinuities are even more striking in the fossil record. New species usually appear in the fossil record suddenly, not connected with their ancestors by a series of intermediates.
Ernst MayrRead
Evolution ... is opportunistic, hence unpredictable.
Ernst MayrRead
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