Systematics and the Origin of Species

In December 2004, the National Academy of Sciences sponsored a colloquium on "Systematics and the Origin of Species" to celebrate Ernst Mayr's 100th anniversary and to explore current knowledge concerning the origin of species. In 1942, Ernst Mayr, one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists, published Systematics and the Origin of Species, a seminal book of the modern theory of evolution, where he advanced the significance of population variation in the understanding of evolutionary process and the origin of new species. Mayr formulated the transition from Linnaeus's static species concept to the dynamic species concept of the modern theory of evolution and emphasized the species as a community of populations, the role of reproductive isolation, and the ecological interactions between species.

In addition to a preceding essay by Edward O. Wilson, this book includes the 16 papers presented by distinguished evolutionists at the colloquium. The papers are organized into sections covering the origins of species barriers, the processes of species divergence, the nature of species, the meaning of "species," and genomic approaches for understanding diversity and speciation.

Table of Contents

• Front Matter
• 1 Introductory Essay: Systematics and the Future of Biology--EDWARD O. WILSON
• Part I--THE ORIGINS OF SPECIES BARRIERS: 2 The Genetic Basis of Reproductive Isolation: Insights from Drosophila--H. ALLEN ORR
• 3 Inter-Locus Antagonistic Coevolution as an Engine of Speciation: Assessment with Hemiclonal Analysis--WILLIAM R. RICE, JODELL E. LINDER, URBAN FRIBERG, TIMOTHY A. LEW, EDWARD H. MORROW, AND ANDREW D. STEWART
• 4 Chromosome Speciation: Humans, Drosophila, and Mosquitoes--FRANCISCO J. AYALA AND MARIO COLUZZI
• 5 Developmental Plasticity and the Origin of Species Differences--MARY JANE WEST-EBERHARD
• Part II--DISCERNING RECENT DIVERGENCE: 6 Speciation in Birds: Genes, Geography, and Sexual Selection--SCOTT V. EDWARDS, SARAH B. KINGAN, JENNIFER D. CALKINS, CHRISTOPHER N. BALAKRISHNAN, W. BRYAN JENNINGS, WILLIE J. SWANSON, AND MICHAEL D. SORENSON
• 7 Critical Review of Host Specificity and Its Coevolutionary Implications in the Fig/Fig-Wasp Mutualism--CARLOS A. MACHADO, NANCY ROBBINS, M. THOMAS P. GILBERT, AND EDWARD ALLEN HERRE
• 8 Evolutionary Animation: How Do Molecular Phylogenies Compare to Mayr’s Reconstruction of Speciation Patterns in the Sea?--STEPHEN R. PALUMBI AND H. A. LESSIOS
• 9 Mayr, Dobzhansky, and Bush and the Complexities of Sympatric Speciation in Rhagoletis--JEFFREY L. FEDER, XIANFA XIE, JUAN RULL, SEBASTIAN VELEZ, ANDREW FORBES, BRIAN LEUNG, HATTIE DAMBROSKI, KENNETH E. FILCHAK, AND MARTIN ALUJA
• 10 On the Origin of...
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