Ernst Mayr & Biological Species Definition — NEET Biology
📚 Practice ConceptBorn on 5 July 1904, in Kempten, Germany, ERNST MAYR, the Harvard University evolutionary biologist who has been called 'The Darwin of the 20th century', was one of the 100 greatest scientists of all time. Mayr joined Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1953 and retired in 1975, assuming the title Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology Emeritus. Throughout his nearly 80-year career, his research spanned ornithology, taxonomy, zoogeography, evolution, systematics, and the history and philosophy of biology. He almost single-handedly made the origin of species diversity the central question of evolutionary biology that it is today. He also pioneered the currently accepted definition of a biological species. Mayr was awarded the three prizes widely regarded as the triple crown of biology: the Balzan Prize in 1983, the International Prize for Biology in 1994, and the Crafoord Prize in 1999. Mayr died at the age of 100 in the year 2004.
Which of the above statements are correct? S1. Ernst Mayr is credited with pioneering the currently accepted biological definition of a species. S2. A species is defined as a group of individual organisms sharing fundamental morphological similarities, regardless of their reproductive isolation. S3. Higher the taxonomic category, easier it is to determine the relationship to other taxa at the same level. S4. Species is considered the lowest obligate category in the taxonomic hierarchy. S5. In binomial nomenclature, the specific epithet always starts with a capital letter.
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