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The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology & Biogeography
Speciation is the process by which co-existing daughter species evolve from one ancestral species - e.g., humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas arising from a common ancestor around 5,000,000 years ago. However, many questions about speciation remain controversial. The Birds of Northern Melanesia provides by far the most comprehensive study yet available of a rich fauna, composed of the 195 breeding land and fresh-water bird species of the Bismarck and Solomon Archipelagoes east of New Guinea. This avifauna offers decisive advantages for understanding speciation, and includes famous examples of geographic variation discussed in textbooks of evolutionary biology.
The book results from 30 years of collaboration between the evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr and the ecologist Jared Diamond. It shows how Northern Melanesian bird distributions provide snapshots of all stages in speciation, from the earliest (widely distributed species without geographic variation) to the last (closely related, reproductively isolated species occurring sympatrically and segregating ecologically). The presentation emphasizes the wide diversity of speciation outcomes, steering a middle course between one-model-fits-all simplification and ungeneralizable species accounts. Questions illuminated include why some species are much more prone to speciate than others, why some water barriers are much more effective at promoting speciation than others, and whether hypothesized taxon cycles, faunal dominance, and legacies of Pleistocene land bridges are real.
These years of study have resulted in a huge database, complete with distributions of all 195 species on 76 islands, together with their taxonomy, colonization routes, ecological attributes, abundance, and overwater dispersal. Color plates depict 88 species and allospecies, many of which have never been seen before. For students of speciation, Northern Melanesian birds now constitute a model system against which other biotas can be compared. For population biologists interested in other problems besides speciation, this rich database can now be mined for insights.
The book results from 30 years of collaboration between the evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr and the ecologist Jared Diamond. It shows how Northern Melanesian bird distributions provide snapshots of all stages in speciation, from the earliest (widely distributed species without geographic variation) to the last (closely related, reproductively isolated species occurring sympatrically and segregating ecologically). The presentation emphasizes the wide diversity of speciation outcomes, steering a middle course between one-model-fits-all simplification and ungeneralizable species accounts. Questions illuminated include why some species are much more prone to speciate than others, why some water barriers are much more effective at promoting speciation than others, and whether hypothesized taxon cycles, faunal dominance, and legacies of Pleistocene land bridges are real.
These years of study have resulted in a huge database, complete with distributions of all 195 species on 76 islands, together with their taxonomy, colonization routes, ecological attributes, abundance, and overwater dispersal. Color plates depict 88 species and allospecies, many of which have never been seen before. For students of speciation, Northern Melanesian birds now constitute a model system against which other biotas can be compared. For population biologists interested in other problems besides speciation, this rich database can now be mined for insights.
548 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
About the author
Ernst W. Mayr
97 books167 followersFor the computer scientist, see Ernst Wilhelm Meyr
Ernst Walter Mayr (July 5, 1904 – February 3, 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, and historian of science. His work contributed to the conceptual revolution that led to the modern evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics, systematics, and Darwinian evolution, and to the development of the biological species concept.
Although Charles Darwin and others posited that multiple species could evolve from a single common ancestor, the mechanism by which this occurred was not understood, creating the species problem. Ernst Mayr approached the problem with a new definition for the concept of species. In his book Systematics and the Origin of Species (1942) he wrote that a species is not just a group of morphologically similar individuals, but a group that can breed only among themselves, excluding all others. When populations within a species become isolated by geography, feeding strategy, mate selection, or other means, they may start to differ from other populations through genetic drift and natural selection, and over time may evolve into new species. The most significant and rapid genetic reorganization occurs in extremely small populations that have been isolated (as on islands).
His theory of peripatric speciation (a more precise form of allopatric speciation which he advanced), based on his work on birds, is still considered a leading mode of speciation, and was the theoretical underpinning for the theory of punctuated equilibrium, proposed by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. Mayr is sometimes credited with inventing modern philosophy of biology, particularly the part related to evolutionary biology, which he distinguished from physics due to its introduction of (natural) history into science.
Ernst Walter Mayr (July 5, 1904 – February 3, 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, and historian of science. His work contributed to the conceptual revolution that led to the modern evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics, systematics, and Darwinian evolution, and to the development of the biological species concept.
Although Charles Darwin and others posited that multiple species could evolve from a single common ancestor, the mechanism by which this occurred was not understood, creating the species problem. Ernst Mayr approached the problem with a new definition for the concept of species. In his book Systematics and the Origin of Species (1942) he wrote that a species is not just a group of morphologically similar individuals, but a group that can breed only among themselves, excluding all others. When populations within a species become isolated by geography, feeding strategy, mate selection, or other means, they may start to differ from other populations through genetic drift and natural selection, and over time may evolve into new species. The most significant and rapid genetic reorganization occurs in extremely small populations that have been isolated (as on islands).
His theory of peripatric speciation (a more precise form of allopatric speciation which he advanced), based on his work on birds, is still considered a leading mode of speciation, and was the theoretical underpinning for the theory of punctuated equilibrium, proposed by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. Mayr is sometimes credited with inventing modern philosophy of biology, particularly the part related to evolutionary biology, which he distinguished from physics due to its introduction of (natural) history into science.
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July 3, 2026
This book is expensive, very detailed and not the sort of book that many non-specialists will read from cover to cover. But with a birthday voucher to spend, and with my amateur interest in the late Ernst Mayr’s theories on evolution, I decided to give it a go. I’m glad I did. I haven’t read every word by any means, but each chapter has a nice summary at the end, and I’ve devoured every word of some sections.
The book is actually about what its sub-title says: the “Speciation, Ecology and Biogeography” of the birds of Northern Melanesia. Diamond and Mayr both spent time (Diamond the longest) in the field observing these birds, and their detailed results provide evidence for the theory of speciation proposed by Mayr.
There are two types of evolution. Firstly, there is anagenesis. This is where there are evolutionary changes WITHIN a species over time. For example, if the environment (physical, biological or climatic) of an entire species gradually changes, then natural selection could lead to the whole species itself gradually changing.
The other type of evolution is cladogenesis. This is where a new species branches off from an existing one. This speciation process most often takes place when a peripheral population of a species becomes geographically isolated. When this happens, this isolated population can evolve relatively rapidly (in geological terms) into a new species. This is called allopatric speciation.
It is this second type of evolution that the book deals with. The islands were a perfect place (like the Galapagos Islands) to act as a case study of speciation via geographical isolation. Diamond and Mayr use their studies to take us through the various stages of the process of allopatric speciation.
Peter and Rosemary Grant on the Galapagos seem to have found one rare case of speciation through hybridisation. But the overwhelming majority of bird species certainly seem to have developed via Mayr-type allopatry.
Mayr’s Biological Species Concept (BSC) defines species as “groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups”. He says that species exist in nature because “The isolating mechanisms of species are devices to protect the integrity of well-balanced, harmonious genotypes.” (Hybrids are usually infertile or less “fit”.) As Mayr himself acknowledged, the BSC definition cannot be applied to asexual organisms or fossils. And how much sympatric speciation - species separating within the same geographical area - there is in plants and animals is a topic of hot debate.
It has sometimes been said that Mayr underestimated the amount of hybridisation that goes on between species. But this book has shown me that Mayr was very aware that species boundaries can be “leaky”. He even says that hybridisation can occasionally import a useful gene into a population. Recent genomics has now shown that certain core parts of the genome of a species do not allow hybridisation, and that this keeps species separate; but that “peripheral” or “neutral” parts can allow genes to pass between species without doing harm, and that this can even occasionally be beneficial. (As some Neanderthal genes have apparently been after entering the Homo sapiens genome.)
For those who are willing and able to spend the money, and who are prepared to put in a lot of effort studying it, this book is a classic which I highly recommend.
The book is actually about what its sub-title says: the “Speciation, Ecology and Biogeography” of the birds of Northern Melanesia. Diamond and Mayr both spent time (Diamond the longest) in the field observing these birds, and their detailed results provide evidence for the theory of speciation proposed by Mayr.
There are two types of evolution. Firstly, there is anagenesis. This is where there are evolutionary changes WITHIN a species over time. For example, if the environment (physical, biological or climatic) of an entire species gradually changes, then natural selection could lead to the whole species itself gradually changing.
The other type of evolution is cladogenesis. This is where a new species branches off from an existing one. This speciation process most often takes place when a peripheral population of a species becomes geographically isolated. When this happens, this isolated population can evolve relatively rapidly (in geological terms) into a new species. This is called allopatric speciation.
It is this second type of evolution that the book deals with. The islands were a perfect place (like the Galapagos Islands) to act as a case study of speciation via geographical isolation. Diamond and Mayr use their studies to take us through the various stages of the process of allopatric speciation.
Peter and Rosemary Grant on the Galapagos seem to have found one rare case of speciation through hybridisation. But the overwhelming majority of bird species certainly seem to have developed via Mayr-type allopatry.
Mayr’s Biological Species Concept (BSC) defines species as “groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups”. He says that species exist in nature because “The isolating mechanisms of species are devices to protect the integrity of well-balanced, harmonious genotypes.” (Hybrids are usually infertile or less “fit”.) As Mayr himself acknowledged, the BSC definition cannot be applied to asexual organisms or fossils. And how much sympatric speciation - species separating within the same geographical area - there is in plants and animals is a topic of hot debate.
It has sometimes been said that Mayr underestimated the amount of hybridisation that goes on between species. But this book has shown me that Mayr was very aware that species boundaries can be “leaky”. He even says that hybridisation can occasionally import a useful gene into a population. Recent genomics has now shown that certain core parts of the genome of a species do not allow hybridisation, and that this keeps species separate; but that “peripheral” or “neutral” parts can allow genes to pass between species without doing harm, and that this can even occasionally be beneficial. (As some Neanderthal genes have apparently been after entering the Homo sapiens genome.)
For those who are willing and able to spend the money, and who are prepared to put in a lot of effort studying it, this book is a classic which I highly recommend.
Displaying 1 of 1 review