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