Life is simply the reification of the process of living.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the sudden appearance of new species in the fossil record, suggesting gaps in the evolutionary process.
Ernst Mayr highlights a crucial aspect of evolutionary biology, pointing out that the fossil record often shows abrupt appearances of new species rather than gradual transitions from their ancestors. This observation raises important questions about the mechanisms of evolution and biodiversity, indicating that the complexities of life's history may not align neatly with linear evolutionary models.
Themes
EvolutionSpeciesFossil RecordBiologyDiscontinuity
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on evolutionary biology, this quote can illustrate the complexities of speciation.
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
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.
Ernst MayrRead
Evolution ... is opportunistic, hence unpredictable.
Ernst MayrRead
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