Mayr

Mayr is a German surname and may refer to various people. The most influential bearer is Ernst Mayr (1904–2005), a German-born American evolutionary biologist whose work helped define the modern synthesis in biology.

In his 20th-century work, Mayr developed and popularized the Biological Species Concept, defining species as groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups. He argued that evolutionary biology should focus on population-level variation rather than fixed, typological types. Mayr also contributed to the understanding of speciation, advocating that geographic isolation drives the divergence of populations into distinct species, a process later discussed in terms of allopatric and related modes of speciation. His philosophy of science emphasized population thinking and the integration of genetics, systematics, and paleontology in explaining evolutionary change. Mayr's influential writings include The Growth of Biological Thought (1982) and Animal Species and Evolution (1942). He spent much of his career at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology and helped shape modern taxonomy and biodiversity studies, influencing biology, philosophy of biology, and conservation.

As a surname, Mayr is common in German-speaking areas and is borne by various individuals across disciplines.