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Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

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222 5 Biological Species <strong>and</strong> Speciation—Mayr’s First Synthesis<br />

Fig.5.6. Speciation through splitting (A) <strong>and</strong> budding (B) resulting in monophyletic<br />

biospecies 1 <strong>and</strong> 2 (consisting of 3 <strong>and</strong> 2 subspecies, respectively) <strong>and</strong> paraphyletic<br />

biospecies 3 (three subspecies). Species 4 which budded off from species 3 is monotypic<br />

<strong>and</strong> may demonstrate its species status by reinvading the ranges of some or all subspecies of<br />

species 3. Shading indicates genetic cohesion <strong>and</strong> intergradation of subspecies along contact<br />

zones. From Haffer (1992)<br />

time was a taxonomic one, whether this form should be ranked as a subspecies,<br />

species or as a monotypic genus. The evolutionary questions why <strong>and</strong> how these<br />

aberrant forms originated on isolated isl<strong>and</strong>s were not yet foremost in his mind.<br />

Another question is to what extent his fieldwork in New Guinea <strong>and</strong> the Solomon<br />

Isl<strong>and</strong>s influenced Mayr’s ideas as developed <strong>and</strong> promoted in his 1942 volume<br />

<strong>and</strong> in later publications. He gave the following answer in an interview:<br />

“The thing is that the influence [of my fieldwork] was only limited because<br />

I already had most of the basic ideas. They had been developed further in recent<br />

years by Stresemann <strong>and</strong> several other workers in this area including in Russia.<br />

Naturally, everything I had done <strong>and</strong> observed in New Guinea <strong>and</strong> the Solomon<br />

Isl<strong>and</strong>s fitted exactly on these basic ideas of the European workers, but they never<br />

had developed all the ideas in these areas: What are the possibilities? What are<br />

the methods to be used? What are the mistakes you might make?” (Bock <strong>and</strong> Lein<br />

2005, video CD-ROM).<br />

Mayr’s 1942 book had an enormous influence on the development of evolutionary<br />

studies worldwide, but various general questions still remain open: What is the<br />

percentage of species of major taxonomic units (e.g., birds or mammals) that originated<br />

through peripatric (“budding”) <strong>and</strong> dichopatric speciation (“splitting”),<br />

respectively? To what extent did peripatric speciation take place on continents?<br />

How many of the taxonomic species currently recognized are, in a cladistic sense,<br />

monophyletic <strong>and</strong> how many are paraphyletic? 14 And how important is sympatric<br />

speciation?<br />

14 Monophyletic species contain all descendants of a common ancestor <strong>and</strong> paraphyletic<br />

species contain some, but not all descendants of a common ancestor. Coyne <strong>and</strong> Orr<br />

(2004: 472) conclude: “Because there is no unitary genetic history at the population level,<br />

it is almost impossible to recognize true paraphyly among closely related taxa using<br />

genetically based phylogenies.”

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