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 Lake Malawi Cichlid Species: A Population Genetic Analysis of Divergence--YONG-JIN WON, ARJUN SIVASUNDAR, YONG WANG, AND JODY HEY Part III--THE NATURE OF SPECIES AND THE MEANING OF ‘‘SPECIES’’: 11 A Multidimensional Approach for Detecting Species Patterns in Malagasy Vertebrates--ANNE D. YODER, LINK E. OLSON, CAROL HANLEY, KELLIE L. HECKMAN, RODIN RASOLOARISON, AMY L. RUSSELL, JULIE RANIVO, VOAHANGY SOARIMALALA, K. PRAVEEN KARANTH, ACH 12 Examining Bacterial Species Under the Specter of Gene Transfer and Exchange--HOWARD OCHMAN, EMMANUELLE LERAT, AND VINCENT DAUBIN 13 Ernst Mayr and the Modern Concept of Species--KEVIN DE QUEIROZ Part IV--GENOMIC APPROACHES AND NEW INSIGHTS ON DIVERSITY: 14 Decoding the Genomic Tree of Life--ANNE B. SIMONSON, JACQUELINE A. SERVIN, RYAN G. SKOPHAMMER, CRAIG W. HERBOLD, MARIA C. RIVERA, AND JAMES A. LAKE 15 Prospects for Identifying Functional Variation Across the Genome--STUART J. MACDONALD AND ANTHONY D. LONG 16 Genetics and Genomics of Drosophila Mating Behavior--TRUDY F. C. MACKAY, STEFANIE L. HEINSOHN, RICHARD F. LYMAN, AMANDA J. MOEHRING, THEODORE J. MORGAN, AND STEPHANIE M. ROLLMANN 17 Genomes, Phylogeny, and Evolutionary Systems Biology--MÓNICA MEDINA Index