On the Origin of Species by Alfred Russel Wallace, claimed that patterns in the geographical distribution of living and fossil species could be explained if every new species always came into existence near an already existing, closely related species. Charles Lyell recognised the implications of Wallace's paper and its possible connection to Darwin's work, although Darwin did not, and in a letter written on 1–2 May 1856 Lyell urged Darwin to publish his theory to establish priority. Darwin was torn between the desire to set out a full and convincing account and the pressure to quickly produce a short paper. He met Lyell, and in
Systematics and the Origin of Species important and useful idea in biology, particularly for animal speciation. In December 2004 the National Academy of Sciences held a colloquium in honour of Mayr's 100th birthday. "Systematics and the Origin of Species: On Ernst Mayr's 100th Anniversary" was also published in commemoration. Systematics and the Origin of Species Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist is a book written by zoologist and evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, first published in 1942 by Columbia University Press. The book became one of the canonical publications on the modern synthesis. Based on Mayr's Jesup Lectures delivered at Columbia