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143-463: The expedition visited islands in the south Pacific region and eventually returned with over 40,000 bird specimens, many plant specimens and an extensive collection of anthropological items and photographs. Using the 75-ton schooner France , with many different scientists and collectors participating over more than a dozen years, the expedition visited thousands of islands throughout Oceania , Micronesia , Polynesia and Melanesia . The France

286-565: A boat through the surf of a coral reef in bad weather, Quayle noted that it was no job for "inexperienced white men". In 1923, Beck released three goats on Henderson Island and was criticised for this in a magazine article which said the goats would damage the island's ecosystem. The Governor of Fiji then asked Beck to kill the goats and not release any more. Beck wrote that: ...this is a desert island with little rainfall and I had in mind shipwrecked sailors who have lived on Henderson and may try to exist there again. Having been shipwrecked once it

429-568: A cabin boy, as well as Beck, Quayle and Curtis. Crew members came from around the Pacific. Captains of the France during the expedition included Marten Nagle (1922-1924); E A Stenbeck (1924-1926); J W R Richmond; Henry (W A?) Burrell (Nov 1929-July 1930) A J D McArthur (1930-1932), and Thomas R Lang. In 1932 funding for the expedition ran out and Dr Murphy of the AMNH wrote to Coultas to confirm that

572-593: A central lagoon . Important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Modern humans first reached the western Pacific in the Paleolithic , at around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. Originating from a southern coastal human migration out of Africa, they reached East Asia , Mainland Southeast Asia , the Philippines, New Guinea , and then Australia by making the sea crossing of at least 80 kilometres (50 mi) between Sundaland and Sahul . It

715-540: A central role in the species problem debate over what was the best species concept . He staunchly defended the biological species concept against the many definitions of "species" that others proposed. Mayr was an outspoken defender of the scientific method and was known to critique sharply science on the edge. As a notable example, in 1995, he criticized the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), as conducted by fellow Harvard professor Paul Horowitz , as being

858-527: A few may he gleaned, but at the possible extermination of some species the skins of which will be then of more monetary value to the Americans, in whose possession they will be. The numbers permitted to be destroyed are quite in excess of scientific requirements, and clearly indicate the purpose for which they are required. After the Society protested, a museum officer was sent to accompany the expedition, and

1001-490: A gene is never visible to natural selection, and in the genotype, it is always in the context with other genes, and the interaction with those other genes make a particular gene either more favorable or less favorable. In fact, Dobzhansky , for instance, worked quite a bit on so-called lethal chromosomes which are highly successful in one combination, and lethal in another. Therefore people like Dawkins in England who still think

1144-410: A marvelous job of popularizing Darwinism. But Dawkins' basic theory of the gene being the object of evolution is totally non-Darwinian. I would not call him the greatest Darwinian. Mayr insisted that the entire genome should be considered as the target of selection , rather than individual genes : The idea that a few people have about the gene being the target of selection is completely impractical;

1287-716: A new wing for the American Museum of Natural History, which would house the many specimens being collected by the South Sea expedition and other expeditions in Africa and South America. Construction of the Whitney Wing began with ground breaking in 1931, but was interrupted by World War 2. Part of the new wing was to be called the Whitney Hall of Oceanic Birds and would feature the birds of the Pacific. Following

1430-772: A party in Manhattan in 1932), and she assisted Mayr in some of his work. Margarete died in 1990. He was survived by two daughters (Christa Menzel and Susanne Harrison), five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. The awards that Mayr received include the National Medal of Science , the Balzan Prize , the Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society , the International Prize for Biology ,

1573-413: A population. In many of his writings, Mayr rejected reductionism in evolutionary biology, arguing that evolutionary pressures act on the whole organism, not on single genes, and that genes can have different effects depending on the other genes present. He advocated a study of the whole genome , rather than of only isolated genes. After articulating the biological species concept in 1942, Mayr played

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1716-484: A similar fashion, Mayr was also quite critical of molecular evolution studies such as those of Carl Woese . Current molecular studies in evolution and speciation indicate that although allopatric speciation is the norm, there are numerous cases of sympatric speciation in groups with greater mobility, such as birds. The precise mechanisms of sympatric speciation, however, are usually a form of microallopatry enabled by variations in niche occupancy among individuals within

1859-485: 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 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

2002-497: A species become isolated by geography, feeding strategy, mate choice , 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,

2145-463: A test to identify treecreepers and Mayr was able to identify most of the specimens correctly. Stresemann declared that Mayr "was a born systematist ". In 1925, Stresemann suggested that he give up his medical studies, in fact he should leave the faculty of medicine and enrol into the faculty of Biology and then join the Berlin Museum with the prospect of bird-collecting trips to the tropics, on

2288-651: A three-masted, 110-ton auxiliary schooner, left New York in February 1940, travelling to Australia via the Panama Canal and various Pacific Islands. The expedition ended prematurely in October 1940 when the ship struck a reef near Gladstone in Queensland and sank. The Whitney Hall of Oceanic Birds finally opened in the new wing of the AMNH in 1952, with 18 windows showing dioramas of over 400 species of birds from

2431-566: A variety of journals—more than some reputable scientists publish in their entire careers; 14 of his 25 books were published after he was 65. Even as a centenarian , he continued to write books. On his 100th birthday, he was interviewed by Scientific American magazine. Mayr died on 3 February 2005 in his retirement home in Bedford, Massachusetts , after a short illness. He had married fellow German Margarete "Gretel" Simon in May 1935 (they had met at

2574-468: A waste of university and student resources for its inability to address and answer a scientific question. Over 60 eminent scientists, led by Carl Sagan , rebutted the criticism. Mayr rejected the idea of a gene-centered view of evolution and starkly but politely criticised Richard Dawkins 's ideas: The funny thing is if in England, you ask a man in the street who the greatest living Darwinian is, he will say Richard Dawkins. And indeed, Dawkins has done

2717-546: A year, he decided to leave medicine and enrolled at the Faculty of Biological Sciences." Mayr was endlessly interested in ornithology and "chose Greifswald at the Baltic for my studies for no other reason than that ... it was situated in the ornithologically most interesting area." Although he ostensibly planned to become a physician, he was "first and foremost an ornithologist." During the first semester break Stresemann gave him

2860-542: Is 4,280 m (14,040 ft; 2,340 fathoms), putting the total water volume at roughly 710,000,000 km (170,000,000 cu mi). Due to the effects of plate tectonics , the Pacific Ocean is currently shrinking by roughly 2.5 cm (1 in) per year on three sides, roughly averaging 0.52 km (0.20 sq mi) a year. By contrast, the Atlantic Ocean is increasing in size. Along

3003-416: Is certainly an art to accomplish it the way it ought to be done, that is to say removing the skeleton, bones, flesh, intestines and fatty parts, leaving the wings and feathers properly sewed for mounting or museum reference". "One can wash plumage quite well if blood is removed with water, then the benzine, and dry in corn meal, and this was our usual procedure". Coultas described how an adult cassowary specimen

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3146-643: Is no prize for evolutionary biology and that Darwin would not have received one, either. (In fact, there is no Nobel Prize for biology.) Mayr did win a 1999 Crafoord Prize . It honors basic research in fields that do not qualify for Nobel Prizes and is administered by the same organization as the Nobel Prize. In 2001, Mayr received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement . Since winning Balzan Prize, Crafoord Prize and

3289-491: Is not known with any certainty what level of maritime technology was used by these groups – the presumption is that they used large bamboo rafts which may have been equipped with some sort of sail. The reduction in favourable winds for a crossing to Sahul after 58,000 B.P. fits with the dating of the settlement of Australia, with no later migrations in the prehistoric period. The seafaring abilities of pre-Austronesian residents of Island South-east Asia are confirmed by

3432-571: Is possible I have a more fellow feeling for the sailor than for the carping sentimentalist who sits at his desk and writes feelingly of localities of which he knows nothing. [...] I do not regret having planted the goats, except as it interferes with the Museum. The bally, blooming shipwrecked English sailors can all starve on the next island they get thrown onto as far as I am concerned, though I am anticipating that experience myself sometime [...] If only I could lead some of these critics about ten feet from

3575-419: Is probably some specific organism, whether germ or parasite no one seems to know at present. They much resemble the leishmaniasis sores which occur elsewhere. The cause not being known, there are many suggested forms of treatment all of which may do good but none of which seem at all specific. There were also personality clashes and periods of low morale on board the France. Seven years into the expedition, Beck

3718-421: 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. Mayr

3861-697: The Americas , although evidence for this remains inconclusive. The first contact of European navigators with the western edge of the Pacific Ocean was made by the Portuguese expeditions of António de Abreu and Francisco Serrão , via the Lesser Sunda Islands , to the Maluku Islands , in 1512, and with Jorge Álvares 's expedition to southern China in 1513, both ordered by Afonso de Albuquerque from Malacca . The eastern side of

4004-424: The Americas , more than 25,000 islands, large and small, rise above the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Multiple islands were the shells of former active volcanoes that have lain dormant for thousands of years. Close to the equator, without vast areas of blue ocean, are a dot of atolls that have over intervals of time been formed by seamounts as a result of tiny coral islands strung in a ring within surroundings of

4147-520: The Bering Sea in the Arctic to the northern extent of the circumpolar Southern Ocean at 60°S (older definitions extend it to Antarctica 's Ross Sea ), the Pacific reaches its greatest east–west width at about 5°N latitude , where it stretches approximately 19,800 km (12,300 mi) from Indonesia to the coast of Colombia  – halfway around the world, and more than five times

4290-579: The Condor : "Too many American ornithologists have despised the study of the living bird; the magazines and books that deal with the subject abound in careless statements, anthropomorphic interpretations, repetition of ancient errors, and sweeping conclusions from a pitiful array of facts.  ... in Europe the study of the living bird is taken seriously. We could learn a great deal from their writing." Mayr ensured that Nice could publish her two-volume Studies in

4433-558: The France in December 1921. The France was a 75 gross ton schooner with a 60 hp motor, built in Papeete around 1918 and previously used in the copra trade. The ship was 71 feet long, 25 feet wide and had a draught of 6 feet. Between 1922 and 1932, the expedition used the France to travel all over the Pacific. When the France left Papeete on 1 February 1922 the crew consisted of the captain, mate, engineer, cook, three sailors and

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4576-592: The France must be disposed of. The ship was sold to WR Carpenter and Co. Renamed Dawaun , she was wrecked when she ran aground on a reef off the Carteret Islands on 29 October 1936. The expedition travelled between island groups by ship, either getting passage on local vessels, using the schooner France that they had purchased, or chartering other vessels such as the Pato , a schooner hired by Coultas in 1933. Bird specimens were collected by various methods. On

4719-551: The France , but the government went ahead and issued a permit for the expedition to collect 846 birds, without requiring that an observer to be present. This was vigorously protested by Val Sanderson of the Native Bird Protection Society. He stated that he had heard that Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology believed that all New Zealand's native birds were "doomed" and should therefore be collected before they became extinct. Sanderson wrote to

4862-907: The Loye and Alden Miller Research Award , and the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science . In 1939 he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union . He was awarded the 1946 Leidy Award from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He was awarded the Linnean Society of London 's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958 and the Linnaean Society of New York 's inaugural Eisenmann Medal in 1983. For his work, Animal Species and Evolution , he

5005-601: The Pacific War ; however, by the end of that war, Japan was defeated and the U.S. Pacific Fleet was the virtual master of the ocean. The Japanese-ruled Northern Mariana Islands came under the control of the United States. Since the end of World War II, many former colonies in the Pacific have become independent states . The Pacific separates Asia and Australia from the Americas. It may be further subdivided by

5148-738: The Sirena Deep , is also located in the Mariana Trench. The western Pacific has many major marginal seas , including the Philippine Sea , South China Sea , East China Sea , Sea of Japan , Sea of Okhotsk , Bering Sea , Gulf of Alaska , Gulf of California , Mar de Grau , Tasman Sea , and the Coral Sea . In the early 16th century , Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and sighted

5291-725: The Southern Hemisphere . The North Equatorial Current , driven westward along latitude 15°N by the trade winds , turns north near the Philippines to become the warm Japan or Kuroshio Current . Turning eastward at about 45°N , the Kuroshio forks and some water moves northward as the Aleutian Current , while the rest turns southward to rejoin the North Equatorial Current. The Aleutian Current branches as it approaches North America and forms

5434-710: The Southwest Pacific around Oceania . The Pacific Ocean's mean depth is 4,000 meters (13,000 feet). Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench , located in the northwestern Pacific, is the deepest known point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,928 meters (35,853 feet). The Pacific also contains the deepest point in the Southern Hemisphere , the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench , at 10,823 meters (35,509 feet). The third deepest point on Earth,

5577-685: The Strait of Magellan to the Philippines , the explorer indeed found the ocean peaceful; however, the Pacific is not always peaceful. Many tropical storms batter the islands of the Pacific. The lands around the Pacific Rim are full of volcanoes and often affected by earthquakes . Tsunamis , caused by underwater earthquakes, have devastated many islands and in some cases destroyed entire towns. The Martin Waldseemüller map of 1507

5720-818: The Western Hemisphere . The Southern Pacific Ocean harbors the Southeast Indian Ridge crossing from south of Australia turning into the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge (north of the South Pole ) and merges with another ridge (south of South America) to form the East Pacific Rise which also connects with another ridge (south of North America) which overlooks the Juan de Fuca Ridge . For most of Magellan's voyage from

5863-673: The World Ocean and the hydrosphere covers about 46% of Earth's water surface and about 32% of the planet's total surface area, larger than its entire land area (148,000,000 km (57,000,000 sq mi)). The centers of both the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere , as well as the oceanic pole of inaccessibility , are in the Pacific Ocean. Ocean circulation (caused by the Coriolis effect ) subdivides it into two largely independent volumes of water that meet at

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6006-583: The crab claw sail ) – it is likely that the progressive development of these technologies were related to the later steps of settlement into Near and Remote Oceania. Starting at around 2200 BCE, Austronesians sailed southwards to settle the Philippines . From, probably, the Bismarck Archipelago they crossed the western Pacific to reach the Marianas Islands by 1500 BCE, as well as Palau and Yap by 1000 BCE. They were

6149-991: The equator , the North Pacific Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean (or more loosely the South Seas ). The Pacific Ocean can also be informally divided by the International Date Line into the East Pacific and the West Pacific , which allows it to be further divided into four quadrants, namely the Northeast Pacific off the coasts of North America , the Southeast Pacific off South America , Northwest Pacific off Far Eastern / Pacific Asia , and

6292-589: The 'high seas', and he claimed that he could take any birds as long as he was more than three miles from land and did not bring the birds to New Zealand. However, as Walter Oliver from the Dominion Museum pointed out, Beck had also discovered during the expedition that birds that breed in New Zealand may migrate as far as Chile or California. Such species had been collected from all over the Pacific, so any list of New Zealand birds taken did not represent

6435-485: The AMNH in 1924: As our permit allows but 20 birds of the protected kinds, I am assuming that you will determine most of the land birds out here to be others different than the ones given in the list of protected birds. As you want to send some specimens of these almost distinct forms to the British Musem, the limit, ten, is in the case of insectivorous birds, entirely too small a number. I suggest that you emphasize

6578-418: The AMNH when the expedition's vessel arrived at a port. Mail was collected and sent, food and other supplies were stocked up and maintenance would be carried out on the ship. Funds for supplies and for paying the ships crew and shoot boys were organised as well. The expedition had to get permits to collect specimens from the various territories that they visited. Beck found this irritating, writing to Murphy at

6721-908: The Atlantic, the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent the entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western side of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines . The 18th century marked the beginning of major exploration by the Russians in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands , such as the First Kamchatka expedition and the Great Northern Expedition , led by

6864-405: The Atlantic. The andesite line is the most significant regional distinction in the Pacific. A petrologic boundary, it separates the deeper, mafic igneous rock of the Central Pacific Basin from the partially submerged continental areas of felsic igneous rock on its margins. The andesite line follows the western edge of the islands off California and passes south of the Aleutian arc , along

7007-490: The Berlin Museum joined the expedition on its trip to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in 1929, after Hamlin had replaced Beck as leader. He left the expedition in February 1930 to return to Germany. Mayr was hired by the AMNH to curate the Rothschild collection in 1933, and he continued to work up the material that returned to the AMNH from the Whitney expeditions. He continued at AMNH until 1953 as curator of birds. John Boyd ("Jack") Riddall, born in England in 1905, joined

7150-433: The Chilean coast, the South Equatorial Current divides; one branch flows around Cape Horn and the other turns north to form the Peru or Humboldt Current . The climate patterns of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres generally mirror each other. The trade winds in the southern and eastern Pacific are remarkably steady while conditions in the North Pacific are far more varied with, for example, cold winter temperatures on

7293-499: The Danish-born Russian navy officer Vitus Bering . Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest , reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and colonized Polynesia , and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii , and the North American Pacific Northwest . In 1768, Pierre-Antoine Véron , a young astronomer accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of exploration, established

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7436-636: The International Prize for Biology, are usually regarded as a "Triple Crown in Biology," he won this crown too. Mayr was co-author of six global reviews of bird species new to science (listed below). Mayr said he was an atheist in regards to "the idea of a personal God" because "there is nothing that supports [it]". As a traditionally-trained biologist, Mayr was often highly critical of early mathematical approaches to evolution, such as those of J.B.S. Haldane , and famously called such approaches "beanbag genetics" in 1959. He maintained that factors such as reproductive isolation had to be taken into account. In

7579-505: The Life History of the Song Sparrow . He found her a publisher, and her book was reviewed by Aldo Leopold , Joseph Grinnell, and Jean Delacour . Nice dedicated her book to "My Friend Ernst Mayr." Mayr joined the faculty of Harvard University in 1953, where he also served as director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology from 1961 to 1970. He retired in 1975 as emeritus professor of zoology , showered with honors. Following his retirement, he went on to publish more than 200 articles, in

7722-483: The Minister decided that in future permits would only be issued on the condition that an official would accompany any expedition collecting native birds. Beck wrote to Murphy in February 1926: "Somehow, the Government located us and sent us an urgent telegram yesterday saying that Mr. Oliver of the Dominion Museum wanted to accompany us to the southern islands. I managed, when at Wellington, to put him off but yesterday had to agree." Beck responded publicly to criticism that

7865-421: The Minister of Internal Affairs: That an extensively equipped foreign collecting expedition on such a scale and with permission to kill the extravagant number of birds allowed should be given entirely unrestricted liberty, except by a few valueless written conditions, amongst our birds, some of which are on the verge of extinction, is unthinkable, a slur on the regard which the people of New Zealand are evincing in

8008-498: The Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions encountered the Caroline Islands , the Aru Islands , and Papua New Guinea . In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan. In 1564, five Spanish ships carrying 379 soldiers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi , and colonized the Philippines and Mariana Islands . For the remainder of the 16th century, Spain maintained military and mercantile control, with ships sailing from Mexico and Peru across

8151-556: The Pacific Ring of Fire is the world's foremost belt of explosive volcanism . The Ring of Fire is named after the several hundred active volcanoes that sit above the various subduction zones. The Pacific Ocean is the only ocean which is mostly bounded by subduction zones. Only the central part of the North American coast and the Antarctic and Australian coasts have no nearby subduction zones. Ernst Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr ( / ˈ m aɪər / MYRE , German: [ɛʁnst ˈmaɪɐ] ; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005)

8294-429: The Pacific Ocean to the Philippines via Guam , and establishing the Spanish East Indies . The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries, linking Manila and Acapulco , in one of the longest trade routes in history. Spanish expeditions also arrived at Tuvalu , the Marquesas , the Cook Islands , the Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , the Marshalls and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. Later, in

8437-399: The Pacific Ocean's irregular western margins lie many seas, the largest of which are the Celebes Sea , Coral Sea , East China Sea (East Sea), Philippine Sea , Sea of Japan , South China Sea (South Sea), Sulu Sea , Tasman Sea , and Yellow Sea (West Sea of Korea). The Indonesian Seaway (including the Strait of Malacca and Torres Strait ) joins the Pacific and the Indian Ocean to

8580-402: The Pacific in recorded history. They were part of a Spanish expedition to the Spice Islands that would eventually result in the first world circumnavigation . Magellan called the ocean Pacífico (or "Pacific" meaning, "peaceful") because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn , the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until

8723-400: The Pacific region in their natural habitats. In 1998, 10 of the 18 dioramas in the Whitney Hall were covered up to make way for the installation of a butterfly conservatory. The butterfly exhibit was supposed to be temporary but has remained in place, and most of the bird displays are not viewable. Pacific Main five oceans division: Further subdivision: The Pacific Ocean is

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8866-453: The Pacific was urgent, as species were becoming extinct through various causes: introduced mammals such as pigs, dogs, cats and mongooses; spread of introduced birds including the myna ; human activities such as copra processing, pearl diving and beche-de-mer fishing and lifestyle changes brought on by modernisation. The expedition collected not only bird skins, but also nests, eggs, whole birds preserved in alcohol, and bird stomachs from

9009-540: The Philippines already in 7000 BCE. Additional earlier migrations into Insular Southeast Asia, associated with Austroasiatic-speakers from Mainland Southeast Asia, are estimated to have taken place already in 15000 BCE. At around 1300 to 1200 BCE, a branch of the Austronesian migrations known as the Lapita culture reached the Bismarck Archipelago , the Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , Fiji , and New Caledonia . From there, they settled Tonga and Samoa by 900 to 800 BCE. Some also back-migrated northwards in 200 BCE to settle

9152-402: The Solomon Islands to join the expedition while Drowne was unwell. Richards left the expedition in 1929 and became a journalist. Hamlin became the expedition leader from March 1928 when Beck left, until January 1930. Coultas then took over and Hamlin left the expedition in August 1930. He returned to Yale and became a neurosurgeon. William Coultas and his friend Walter Eyerdam arrived to join

9295-409: The Staatsgymnasium in Dresden-Neustadt and completed his high school education. In April 1922, while still in high school, he joined the newly founded Saxony Ornithologists' Association. There he met Rudolf Zimmermann, who became his ornithological mentor. In February 1923, Mayr passed his high school examination (Abitur) and his mother rewarded him with a pair of binoculars. On 23 March 1923 on one of

9438-528: The United States. Significant contributions to oceanographic knowledge were made by the voyages of HMS Beagle in the 1830s, with Charles Darwin aboard; HMS Challenger during the 1870s; the USS Tuscarora (1873–76); and the German Gazelle (1874–76). In Oceania, France obtained a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853, respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro negotiated

9581-423: The Whitney South Sea Expedition in 1922 to replace Ernest Quayle, with Correia acting as expedition leader for six months in 1923 while Beck was away in New York. Correia was a cooper by trade. While on a trip to the Antarctic as a cooper in 1911, he had met Dr Robert Murphy of the AMNH, who taught him how to prepare bird specimens. Correia then took part in other AMNH expeditions as a bird collector. The Correias left

9724-434: The Whitney South Sea Expedition, Sheridan Fahnestock led a group of 18, including seven college students, on an expedition to the Pacific. The second Fahnestock Expedition was sponsored by the Whitney Hall at the AMNH, to supplement the birds collected by the Whitney South Sea Expedition by collecting plants and other specimens to display in dioramas at the Whitney Hall which was then under construction. The ship Director II ,

9867-402: The Whitney expedition at the end of 1926 after contracting malaria, and were replaced by Frederick Drowne. Edwin Bryan , an entomologist from the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, joined the expedition in 1924. He spent ten months collecting plant and insect specimens before returning to his work in Hawaii. Dr Frederick P Drowne joined the Whitney Expedition as a field researcher in December 1926. He

10010-463: The above, to be passing very close to centre of cyclonic system". Jose Correia used more colourful language to describe the storm: “…we ran into the center of a strong cyclone on June 2nd. Everybody in the ship thought that they were never going to see land again, but God did not forget us in the middle of the furious ocean.” Approaching reefs in smaller boats could also be extremely dangerous. After an incident where an islander nearly drowned trying to get

10153-415: The aims of the expedition, it believed that "the interests of science are being better served by a policy of strict preservation of the living birds". In July 1925 the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society warned the government that the expedition's goal of observing New Zealand's birds actually meant observing "over the sight of a shot gun". The Society asked the government to put an observer on board

10296-544: The andesite line and include New Guinea, the islands of New Zealand, and the Philippines. Some of these islands are structurally associated with nearby continents. High islands are of volcanic origin, and many contain active volcanoes. Among these are Bougainville , Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands. The coral reefs of the South Pacific are low-lying structures that have built up on basaltic lava flows under

10439-408: The andesite line. Within the closed loop of the andesite line are most of the deep troughs, submerged volcanic mountains, and oceanic volcanic islands that characterize the Pacific basin. Here basaltic lavas gently flow out of rifts to build huge dome-shaped volcanic mountains whose eroded summits form island arcs, chains, and clusters. Outside the andesite line, volcanism is of the explosive type, and

10582-594: The arctic, icing from October to May can present a hazard for shipping while persistent fog occurs from June to December. A climatological low in the Gulf of Alaska keeps the southern coast wet and mild during the winter months. The Westerlies and associated jet stream within the Mid-Latitudes can be particularly strong, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, due to the temperature difference between

10725-525: The base of a counter-clockwise circulation in the Bering Sea . Its southern arm becomes the chilled slow, south-flowing California Current . The South Equatorial Current , flowing west along the equator, swings southward east of New Guinea , turns east at about 50°S , and joins the main westerly circulation of the South Pacific, which includes the Earth-circling Antarctic Circumpolar Current . As it approaches

10868-521: The botanical specimens collected by the expedition. Quayle was a Stanford University graduate with a geology degree. Beck, his wife Ida and Quayle based themselves in Papeete in 1920, and in 1922 Charles Curtis , who had been working on a plantation in Tahiti, joined the expedition as Beck was readying to leave Tahiti in the France. Curtis spent five months with the expedition before returning to his previous job. José Correia and his wife Virginia joined

11011-657: The case of sailors a contract, when otherwise they would have made sudden and speedy departure. Drowne also believed that it was important to establish friendly relations with the local people when entering their territory. The France faced gales and storms and high seas in the Pacific Ocean. On 2 June 1926 the expedition met particularly bad weather, which the captain recorded in his logbook: "Sky extremely ugly [...] Squalls at frequent intervals of severe intensity and with heavy rain, hail, lightning and thunder. Sea high and confused.[...] Water spout passed very close ahead.[....] Vessel shipped considerable amount of water [...] Suspect

11154-574: The condition that he completed his doctoral studies in 16 months. Mayr completed his doctorate in ornithology at the University of Berlin under Dr. Carl Zimmer, who was a full professor ( Ordentlicher Professor ), on 24 June 1926 at the age of 21. On 1 July he accepted the position offered to him at the museum for a monthly salary of 330.54 Reichsmark. At the International Zoological Congress at Budapest in 1927, Mayr

11297-459: The diameter of the Moon. Its geographic center is in eastern Kiribati south of Kiritimati , just west from Starbuck Island at 4°58′S 158°45′W  /  4.97°S 158.75°W  / -4.97; -158.75 . The lowest known point on Earth – the Mariana Trench  – lies 10,911 m (35,797  ft ; 5,966 fathoms ) below sea level. Its average depth

11440-402: The difference between temperatures aloft and sea surface temperatures is the greatest; however, each particular basin has its own seasonal patterns. On a worldwide scale, May is the least active month, while September is the most active month. November is the only month in which all the tropical cyclone basins are active. The Pacific hosts the two most active tropical cyclone basins , which are

11583-557: The east and the islands of Kiribati in the southeast. Melanesia, to the southwest, includes New Guinea , the world's second largest island after Greenland and by far the largest of the Pacific islands. The other main Melanesian groups from north to south are the Bismarck Archipelago , the Solomon Islands , Santa Cruz , Vanuatu , Fiji and New Caledonia . The largest area, Polynesia , stretching from Hawaii in

11726-505: The east coast of Russia contrasting with the milder weather off British Columbia during the winter months due to the preferred flow of ocean currents . In the tropical and subtropical Pacific, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects weather conditions. To determine the phase of ENSO, the most recent three-month sea surface temperature average for the area approximately 3,000 km (1,900 mi) to

11869-665: The eastern edge of the Kamchatka Peninsula , the Kuril Islands , Japan, the Mariana Islands , the Solomon Islands , and New Zealand's North Island . The dissimilarity continues northeastward along the western edge of the Andes Cordillera along South America to Mexico, returning then to the islands off California. Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, New Guinea, and New Zealand lie outside

12012-572: The eighteenth century. Magellan stopped at one uninhabited Pacific island before stopping at Guam in March 1521. Although Magellan himself died in the Philippines in 1521, Spanish navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano led the remains of the expedition back to Spain across the Indian Ocean and round the Cape of Good Hope , completing the first world circumnavigation in 1522. Sailing around and east of

12155-647: The equator into northern (North Pacific) and southern (South Pacific) portions. It extends from the Antarctic region in the South to the Arctic in the north. The Pacific Ocean encompasses approximately one-third of the Earth's surface, having an area of 165,200,000 km (63,800,000 sq mi) – larger than Earth's entire landmass combined, 150,000,000 km (58,000,000 sq mi). Extending approximately 15,500 km (9,600 mi) from

12298-601: The equator, which can have a salinity as low as 34 parts per thousand, is less salty than that found in the mid-latitudes because of abundant equatorial precipitation throughout the year. The lowest counts of less than 32 parts per thousand are found in the far north as less evaporation of seawater takes place in these frigid areas. The motion of Pacific waters is generally clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (the North Pacific gyre ) and counter-clockwise in

12441-734: The expedition as a bird collector and skinner at the Solomon Islands in May 1930. He had until then been working as a clerk at Lever Brothers plantation on Gavutu . Riddall left the expedition in 1932, lived in Australia and in 1942 enlisted as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Australian Air Force. Thomas Lindsay Macmillan became leader of the expedition in 1935 after Coultas left. He was a farmer, born in Vanuatu to an Australian father, and had lived in both countries. Macmillan and his wife Joy collected and processed birds for

12584-638: The expedition at the end of August 1929, and in January 1930 Coultas took over from Hamlin as leader. Walter Eyerdam was a mineralogist and skilled collector of molluscs, plants, birds and mammals. He left the Whitney expedition in mid-1930, later taking part in other expeditions. Coultas returned to New York in 1935 to work for the AMNH, and also took part in other expeditions before joining the US Naval Reserve Force in 1942. Ernst Mayr from

12727-583: The expedition in New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, Papua New Guinea and Queensland, Australia. Macmillan left the expedition in 1940 to join the Australian navy. In later life he and Joy ran a mission station in the Australian outback. At first, the expedition was based in Tahiti and used trading vessels to get around the Pacific, but Beck wanted to be free of other people's schedules. He bought

12870-485: The expedition needed to carry photography equipment, medical supplies, numerous guns and copious amounts of ammunition in various sizes. Calico, tobacco and other items were carried for use as trade goods. Local boys and men were employed to carry packs, do chores around camp and also as "shoot boys", helping to hunt land birds. Some of the ship's crew of Pacific Islanders also became adept at skinning and processing collected specimens. Processed specimens were shipped back to

13013-597: The expedition was a commercial enterprise that was killing rare birds. He noted that all the specimens collected were sent to the non-profit National Museum of Art and History in New York, where students from all over the world could study them. Regarding suggestions that rare birds were killed, he stated : All this talk about exterminating rare and protected birds is not new to me. I have heard it all before, in different places, and notably in my own country, California. The average layman never seems to be able to appreciate

13156-415: The expedition's chart, so for purposes of labelling the specimens, they dubbed the islands " Whitney Island ". The islets were located at approximately latitude 6 58 S and longitude 155 38 E, a few miles away from an island called Momalufa. The expedition was important for several reasons. The specimens and data collected provided a large database for subsequent studies of birds in the Pacific. The expedition

13299-409: The expedition. Specimens had to be processed quickly before they decomposed. Sometimes the expedition members would set up a base on land and process the birds there, but otherwise skinning was typically done by the light of benzine lamps in the hold of the France . Supplies needed for processing birds included arsenic, alum, benzine, cornmeal, needles, bone cutters, cotton wrapping and labels.  "It

13442-519: The extremely rare species included in the list to be killed, as, for instance, the Chatham Island bell bird , Auckland Island duck, Chatham Island fern bird and pigeon , sand plover (ten is out of all reason), Chatham Island snipe , Southern Merganser, and half a dozen other species which are on the verge of extinction and should not have been allowed to be killed under any circumstances whatever. Some little scientific information of interest to

13585-455: The fact that specimens of birds are most valuable from a scientific point of view. There is a very great deal yet to be discovered concerning the habits of the birds, and it is only by means of the facts ascertained and the specimens obtained by an expedition such as this, that scientists can arrive at the truth. In April 1926, a list of 385 birds taken by the expedition in New Zealand waters was published. Most of Beck's specimens were collected on

13728-603: The fact, especially as this expedition is in a field never before collected and not likely to be again for a long time. Unless of course the Managing Director is one of the biased individuals whom reason does not appeal to. Early in 1925, the New Zealand Government declined a request by the expedition to collect bird specimens from the Cook Islands, saying that although the government supported

13871-490: The first completely documented European landing in Australia (1606), in Cape York Peninsula , and Abel Janszoon Tasman circumnavigated and landed on parts of the Australian continental coast and arrived at Tasmania and New Zealand in 1642. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a mare clausum  – a sea closed to other naval powers. As the only known entrance from

14014-474: The first humans to reach Remote Oceania , and the first to cross vast distances of open water. They also continued spreading southwards and settling the rest of Maritime Southeast Asia , reaching Indonesia and Malaysia by 1500 BCE, and further west to Madagascar and the Comoros in the Indian Ocean by around 500 CE. More recently, it is suggested that Austronesians expanded already earlier, arriving in

14157-431: The gene is the target of selection are evidently wrong. In the 30s and 40s, it was widely accepted that genes were the target of selection, because that was the only way they could be made accessible to mathematics , but now we know that it is really the whole genotype of the individual, not the gene. Except for that slight revision, the basic Darwinian theory hasn't changed in the last 50 years. Darwin's theory of evolution

14300-533: The great "Southern Sea" which he named Mar del Sur (in Spanish). Afterwards, the ocean's current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favorable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico , which in Portuguese means 'peaceful sea'. Top large seas: Across the continents of Asia, Australia and

14443-439: The incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888. By occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations. By 1900 nearly all Pacific islands were in control of Britain, France, United States, Germany, Japan, and Chile. Although the United States gained control of Guam and the Philippines from Spain in 1898, Japan controlled most of the western Pacific by 1914 and occupied many other islands during

14586-475: The interior, discovered several species of flora and fauna, while remaining only steps ahead of the Australian patrols sent to capture him. He returned to Germany in 1930. Mayr moved to the United States in 1931 to take up a curatorial position at the American Museum of Natural History, where he played the important role of brokering and acquiring the Walter Rothschild collection of bird skins, which

14729-549: The islands in the world. There are about 25,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands entirely within the Pacific Ocean can be divided into three main groups known as Micronesia , Melanesia and Polynesia . Micronesia, which lies north of the equator and west of the International Date Line , includes the Mariana Islands in the northwest, the Caroline Islands in the center, the Marshall Islands to

14872-752: The islands of eastern Micronesia (including the Carolines , the Marshall Islands , and Kiribati ), mixing with earlier Austronesian migrations in the region. This remained the furthest extent of the Austronesian expansion into Polynesia until around 700 CE when there was another surge of island exploration. They reached the Cook Islands , Tahiti , and the Marquesas by 700 CE; Hawaiʻi by 900 CE; Rapa Nui by 1000 CE; and finally New Zealand by 1200 CE. Austronesians may have also reached as far as

15015-611: The lakes of Moritzburg , the Frauenteich, he spotted what he identified as a red-crested pochard . The species had not been seen in Saxony since 1845 and the local club argued about the identity. Raimund Schelcher (1891–1979) of the club then suggested that Mayr visit his classmate Erwin Stresemann on his way to Greifswald, where Mayr was to begin his medical studies. After a tough interrogation, Stresemann accepted and published

15158-484: The landing place on Henderson, or similar islands here in the Lau group, they would express different opinions regarding the suitability of goats for such conditions. The expedition collected birds at Tinakula , an island volcano in the Solomon Islands, during an eruption in March 1927. Beck observed that the leaves of plants were covered in fine dust from the smoking crater, and said "Mrs. Beck went ashore with me and we heard

15301-558: The largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions . It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica ) in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. At 165,250,000 square kilometers (63,800,000 square miles) in area (as defined with a southern Antarctic border), this largest division of

15444-547: The lava boulders rattling down gullies above our heads after one violent explosion from the active crater on top". Later, back on board the France, they watched lava rolling down the mountain. On 8 December 1927 the expedition anchored near a small group of low-lying islets about 11 miles west of the Shortland Islands. Beck and others went ashore to two of the islands and obtained some birds. The islands were unnamed on

15587-639: The local birdwatchers: "In those early years in New York when I was a stranger in a big city, it was the companionship and later friendship which I was offered in the Linnean Society that was the most important thing in my life." Mayr also greatly influenced the American ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice . Mayr encouraged her to correspond with European ornithologists and helped her in her landmark study on song sparrows . Nice wrote to Joseph Grinnell in 1932, trying to get foreign literature reviewed in

15730-601: The north to New Zealand in the south, also encompasses Tuvalu , Tokelau , Samoa , Tonga and the Kermadec Islands to the west, the Cook Islands , Society Islands and Austral Islands in the center, and the Marquesas Islands , Tuamotu , Mangareva Islands , and Easter Island to the east. Islands in the Pacific Ocean are of four basic types: continental islands, high islands, coral reefs and uplifted coral platforms. Continental islands lie outside

15873-619: The northern Philippines , but also earlier groups associated with Austroasiatic-speakers , resulting in the modern peoples of Island Southeast Asia and Oceania. A later seaborne migration is the Neolithic Austronesian expansion of the Austronesian peoples . Austronesians originated from the island of Taiwan c.  3000 –1500 BCE. They are associated with distinctive maritime sailing technologies (notably outrigger boats , catamarans , lashed-lug boats, and

16016-575: The northwestern Pacific and the eastern Pacific. Pacific hurricanes form south of Mexico, sometimes striking the western Mexican coast and occasionally the Southwestern United States between June and October, while typhoons forming in the northwestern Pacific moving into southeast and east Asia from May to December. Tropical cyclones also form in the South Pacific basin , where they occasionally impact island nations. In

16159-399: The ocean was encountered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached a new ocean. He named it Mar del Sur ("Sea of the South" or "South Sea" ) because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. In 1520, navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew were the first to cross

16302-562: The ocean's surface. One of the most dramatic is the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia with chains of reef patches. A second island type formed of coral is the uplifted coral platform, which is usually slightly larger than the low coral islands. Examples include Banaba (formerly Ocean Island) and Makatea in the Tuamotu group of French Polynesia . The volume of the Pacific Ocean, representing about 50.1 percent of

16445-536: The ocean, the expedition's ship might pass by a flock of birds which could be shot from on board. On reaching an island, expedition members would go ashore by rowboat to shoot birds along the coast, or walk and climb into the interior of the island to seek out and shoot land birds and other specimens. On inhabited islands, the team would consult the local people to find out about the types and habits of various birds, and would employ local guides to take them to nesting areas. Local people were also paid to collect specimens for

16588-581: The quest for Terra Australis ("the [great] Southern Land"), Spanish explorations in the 17th century, such as the expedition led by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós , arrived at the Pitcairn and Vanuatu archipelagos, and sailed the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, named after navigator Luís Vaz de Torres . Dutch explorers, sailing around southern Africa, also engaged in exploration and trade; Willem Janszoon , made

16731-462: The roof to dry as expediently as possible. Formaldehyde, salt brine or methyl spirit were used to preserve specimens such as frogs and snakes. Expedition members were expected to work from early morning until late at night collecting and processing specimens. Sundays, supposedly a day off, were the only time available for typing up notes, making sketches, preparing labels and getting ready for the week ahead. Along with supplies for processing specimens,

16874-505: The settlement of Buka by 32,000 B.P. and Manus by 25,000 B.P. Journeys of 180 kilometres (110 mi) and 230 kilometres (140 mi) are involved, respectively. The descendants of these migrations today are the Negritos , Melanesians , and Indigenous Australians . Their populations in maritime Southeast Asia , coastal New Guinea , and Island Melanesia later intermarried with the incoming Austronesian settlers from Taiwan and

17017-414: The sighting as authentic. Stresemann was very impressed and suggested that, between semesters, Mayr could work as a volunteer in the ornithological section of the museum. Mayr wrote about this event, "It was as if someone had given me the key to heaven." He entered the University of Greifswald in 1923 and, according to Mayr himself, "took the medical curriculum (to satisfy a family tradition) but after only

17160-648: The skinned birds. Lizards, other reptiles, turtles, small mammals such as bats and rodents, and plants were collected for the AMNH and the Bishop Museum. Expedition members also took many photographs and notes about the wildlife, vegetation, topography and lifestyles of the local people they encountered. The expedition was led by Rollo H. Beck (1920-1928), Hannibal Hamlin (1928-1930), William F. Coultas (1930-1935), Lindsay Macmillan (1935-1940), and G. Reid Henry (1941). Beck, an expert bird collector himself, hired Ernest H. Quayle to assist with collecting, including

17303-439: The society concentrated on taxonomy and later became a clearing house for bird banding and sight records. Mayr encouraged his Linnaean Society seminar participants to take up a specific research project of their own. Under Mayr's influence one of them, Joseph Hickey, went on to write A Guide to Birdwatching (1943). Hickey remembered later, "Mayr was our age and invited on all our field trips. The heckling of this German foreigner

17446-504: The southeast of Hawaii is computed, and if the region is more than 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) above or below normal for that period, then an El Niño or La Niña is considered in progress. In the tropical western Pacific, the monsoon and the related wet season during the summer months contrast with dry winds in the winter which blow over the ocean from the Asian landmass. Worldwide, tropical cyclone activity peaks in late summer, when

17589-426: The total number of New Zealand-breeding sea birds collected by the expedition. Members of the expedition contracted various ailments including arsenic poisoning, dengue fever, malaria and tropical ulcers or "island sores". Drowne spent time in hospital in the Solomon Islands and had 20 injections of antimony in an attempt to cure his ulcers on his legs, writing that: The tropical ulcers are a terrible thing. The cause

17732-804: The tropics and Antarctica, which records the coldest temperature readings on the planet. In the Southern hemisphere, because of the stormy and cloudy conditions associated with extratropical cyclones riding the jet stream, it is usual to refer to the Westerlies as the Roaring Forties, Furious Fifties and Shrieking Sixties according to the varying degrees of latitude. The ocean was first mapped by Abraham Ortelius ; he called it Maris Pacifici following Ferdinand Magellan 's description of it as "a pacific sea" during his circumnavigation from 1519 to 1522. To Magellan, it seemed much more calm (pacific) than

17875-429: The welfare of their heritage, the care of which is entrusted to your department. Your action is also a slight to the operations of this society, and it seems idle and hypocritical for us to continue further work and collect subscriptions from school children and others in the face of such departmental lassitude. We think, moreover, it would only have been courtesy had you consulted us before issuing permits to destroy any of

18018-586: The west, and Drake Passage and the Strait of Magellan link the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean on the east. To the north, the Bering Strait connects the Pacific with the Arctic Ocean . As the Pacific straddles the 180th meridian , the West Pacific (or western Pacific , near Asia) is in the Eastern Hemisphere , while the East Pacific (or eastern Pacific , near the Americas) is in

18161-534: The width of the Pacific with precision for the first time in history. One of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by European powers, and later Japan and

18304-434: The world's oceanic water, has been estimated at some 714 million cubic kilometers (171 million cubic miles). Surface water temperatures in the Pacific can vary from −1.4 °C (29.5 °F), the freezing point of seawater, in the poleward areas to about 30 °C (86 °F) near the equator. Salinity also varies latitudinally, reaching a maximum of 37 parts per thousand in the southeastern area. The water near

18447-493: Was a German-American evolutionary biologist . He was also a renowned taxonomist , tropical explorer, ornithologist , philosopher of biology , 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

18590-509: Was a medical doctor and ornithologist from Rhode Island, with connections to the AMNH. He had taken part in several scientific expeditions previously, and had first met Beck during an expedition to the Galapagos Islands. Drowne left the expedition in 1928 due to illness. In June 1930, depressed about his ongoing ill health, he shot himself. In September 1927, Hannibal Hamlin and Guy Richards , both recent Yale graduates, arrived in

18733-498: Was able to confirm the role of geographical isolation in the development of new species, as described by Darwin in his studies of finches in the Galapagos Islands almost a hundred years earlier. In 1938, Murphy stated that the expedition had so far identified 196 new species and sub-species of birds. One of the birds collected during the expedition was Procellaria munda (as named by Kuhl in 1820). A specimen of this bird

18876-824: Was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1967. Mayr was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1988 . In 1995 he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences of the American Philosophical Society , of which he was already a member. Mayr never won a Nobel Prize , but he noted that there

19019-418: Was being sold in order to pay off a blackmailer. During his time at the museum he produced numerous publications on bird taxonomy, and in 1942 his first book Systematics and the Origin of Species , which completed the evolutionary synthesis started by Darwin. After Mayr was appointed at the American Museum of Natural History, he influenced American ornithological research by mentoring young birdwatchers. Mayr

19162-507: Was collected and sketched during Captain Cook's first world voyage in 1769, but there had been no further documented sightings until Beck saw the bird, a type of shearwater , on 16 February 1926. The expedition was also able to confirm the long-distance migration patterns of various sea birds including the long-tailed cuckoo (Urodynamis taitensis). In 1929, Sanford asked the Whitneys to fund

19305-532: Was introduced by Stresemann to banker and naturalist Walter Rothschild , who asked him to undertake an expedition to New Guinea on behalf of himself and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In New Guinea, Mayr collected several thousand bird skins (he named 38 new bird species during his lifetime) and, in the process also named 38 new orchid species. During his stay in New Guinea, he

19448-666: Was invited to accompany the Whitney South Sea Expedition to the Solomon Islands . Also, while in New Guinea, he visited the Lutheran missionaries Otto Thiele and Christian Keyser, in the Finschhafen district; there, while in conversation with his hosts, he uncovered the discrepancies in Hermann Detzner 's popular book Four Years among Cannibals: New Guinea , in which Detzner claimed to have seen

19591-408: Was prepared: This bird kept us busy most of the night, skinning and degreasing. Several natives assisted us by holding the skin while we scraped and worked. Once cleaned we washed the whole thing in gasolene, then inserted sticks and bamboos in the neck and body to hold the skin apart so that it might dry more quickly. One cassowary is an 18 hour job for two people. Once cleaned we simply hung it under

19734-399: Was regarded as energetic, curt and eccentric and not well liked by the crew. Drowne wrote in his journal that Beck was a remarkable success as a bird collector, but a failure as a leader in the field: He is unable to work even to the best advantage, or to inspire [the men's] cooperation and loyalty. A feeling of loyalty to the Museum, or to someone else abroad has kept men on this thing, as in

19877-660: Was sold in 1932 when funds ran out. Specimens from the expedition were displayed in a hall at the AMNH funded by Harry Whitney. The expedition's main aim was to collect birds from various South Pacific islands and the Pacific Ocean, on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History. The AMNH cooperated with the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and the United States National Museum , exchanging specimens and data. Museum officials were aware that research in

20020-463: Was surprised at the differences between American and German birding societies. He noted that the German society was "far more scientific, far more interested in life histories and breeding bird species, as well as in reports on recent literature." Mayr organized a monthly seminar under the auspices of the Linnean Society of New York. Under the influence of J.A. Allen, Frank Chapman, and Jonathan Dwight,

20163-469: Was the first to show the Americas separating two distinct oceans. Later, the Diogo Ribeiro map of 1529 was the first to show the Pacific at about its proper size. (Inhabited dependent territories are denoted by the asterisk (*), with names of the corresponding sovereign states in round brackets. Associated states in the Realm of New Zealand are denoted by the hash sign (#).) Territories with no permanent civilian population. The Pacific Ocean has most of

20306-444: Was the second son of Helene Pusinelli and Otto Mayr. His father was a district prosecuting attorney at Würzburg but took an interest in natural history and took the children out on field trips. Mayr learnt all the local birds in Würzburg from his elder brother Otto. He also had access to a natural history magazine for amateurs, Kosmos . His father died just before he was thirteen. The family then moved to Dresden , where he studied at

20449-428: Was tremendous, but he gave tit for tat, and any modern picture of Dr E. Mayr as a very formal person does not square with my memory of the 1930s. He held his own." A group of eight young birdwatchers from The Bronx later became the Bronx County Bird Club , led by Ludlow Griscom . "Everyone should have a problem" was the way one Bronx County Bird Club member recalled Mayr's refrain. Mayr said of his own involvement with

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