Vero Wynne-Edwards

Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards CBE (born July 4, 1906 in Leeds , † January 5, 1997 in Banchory , Scotland ) was a British zoologist who developed the theory of group selection in his book Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behavior in 1962 . Over a period of 68 years he published ecological studies and thus also played a key role in establishing ecology as an independent academic subject. From 1946 to 1974 he worked at the University of Aberdeen , most recently as Regius Professor of Natural History .

Life

Vero Wynne-Edwards was the fifth child of his parents' six children; he grew up in Leeds, where his father ran the Leeds Grammar School and which he attended from 1914 onwards. In 1920 he was enrolled in Rugby School , a boarding school in Rugby ( Warwickshire ), which, in addition to the usual subjects, also offered study groups for astronomy and other natural history subjects and, for example, also had a herbarium . His interest in botany, which his father had already encouraged, and his precise knowledge of the peculiarities of indigenous lime-loving plants led to his discovery of an extremely rare species of the genus Arenaria that only occurs there in Great Britain on Mount Ingleborough in 1922 , and of its two more common sister species could distinguish.

From 1924 he began studying zoology at the New College of the University of Oxford , hoping to come into contact with Julian Huxley , who, however, moved to King's College London in 1925 . Then his student, Charles Sutherland Elton , Wynne-Edwards study director. During the semester break he worked from 1925 in marine biology research stations, first on the Isle of Man and in the two following years in Plymouth . After completing his zoology studies at Oxford in 1927, he received a scholarship, thanks to which he found his first non-university employment for two years at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory . He was u. a. commissioned to research the sexual dimorphism of Jassa falcata , a sickle shrimp , which failed due to technical problems, so that, in addition to the marine biological laboratory work, he also turned to the migratory behavior of the starlings that winter in Great Britain in late autumn, coming from Scandinavia. In 1929 he took a job as a researcher (assistant lecturer) of Zoology at the University of Bristol on, but received only a few weeks later the offer, assistant professor in Canada to be, he is why in September 1930, the McGill University in Montreal changed .

After Canada and Great Britain had become anti- war opponents of the Nazi state at the beginning of the Second World War , Wynne-Edwards kept his position at McGill University, but from 1939 mainly taught the physical basics of radar equipment in crash courses for the future radar technicians of the Royal Canadian Airforce .

In 1946 Wynne-Edwards returned to Great Britain to the Zoological Institute of Aberdeen in Scotland, where he remained as Regius Professor of Natural History until his retirement in 1974 and also took up botanical topics.

Vero Wynne-Edwards was married to Jeannie Morris, who had met while studying at Oxford. The couple had two children. His library and extensive literature were donated to the Queen's University Library in Ontario (Canada) and are kept there in the Jeannie and Vero Wynne-Edwards Collection .

Research topics

Sea birds

In 1930, on the crossing with the Empress od Scotland from Southampton to Canada, he noticed that - depending on the distance to the coast - different birds can be observed: He discovered the basic pattern of the species composition of the riparian zone , continental shelf and deep sea . Subsequently, the director of the Cunard Line approved him to be transported free of charge across the Atlantic on the passenger and mail ship RMS Ascania , so that between May and September 1933 he made the seasonally different journeys between Montreal and England with a total of four outward and four return trips Was able to map the whereabouts of sea birds . His study, published in 1935, was awarded the Walker Prize by the Boston Society of Natural History .

Botanical Studies

In 1932, in his second summer in Canada, he made a trip to the Chic Chocs Mountains to inspect the unusually rich alpine flora on Mont Albert . In the following years he also undertook several excursions to the north of Canada, which resulted in various specialist works on the flora of the Arctic and the subarctic .

Group selection

Vero Wynne-Edwards became known in professional circles at the latest in 1962, after he formulated the theory of group selection in his 650-page work Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behavior , in which it is assumed that natural selection in the sense of Charles Darwin is not only starts with the individual , but also with social groups . He argued that the behavior of animals is often altruistic , that is, it benefits their group and only thereby - indirectly - also their own survival.

His theory was controversial among evolutionary researchers from the beginning and is still rejected by the majority today; However, the disputes over his theses led to many research projects in the field of sociobiology , in particular the behavior of birds, as well-known researchers such as Edward O. Wilson intervened in the debate.

Honors

Since 1950 Wynne-Edwards was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . He was also a member of the Royal Society from 1970 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) from 1973 .

The Royal Society of Edinburgh awarded him the Neill Prize in 1973 , and in 1980 he received the Frink Medal from the Zoological Society of London .

Fonts (selection)

• The behavior of Starlings in winter . In: British Birds. Volume 23, 1929, pp. 138-153.
• On the habits and distribution of birds on the North Atlantic. In: Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. Volume 40, No. 4, 1935, pp. 233-346.
• Isolated arctic-alpine floras in eastern North America: a discussion of their glacial and recent history. In: Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada (section 5). Volume 31, 1937, pp. 1-26.
• Some factors in the isolation of rare alpine plants. In: Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada (section 5). Volume 33, 1939, pp. 35-42.
• Intermittent Breeding of the Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis (L.)), with some General Observations on Non ‐ Breeding in Sea ‐ Birds. In: Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. Volume A109, No. 2-3, 1939, pp. 127-132, doi: 10.1111 / j.1096-3642.1939.tb03357.x .
• Freshwater vertebrates of the arctic and subarctic. In: Bulletin 94. Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Ottawa 1952.
• Animal dispersion in relation to social behavior . Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh 1962.
• Evolution through group selection . Blackwell Scientific Publ., Oxford and London 1986.
• Self Regulating Systems in Populations of Animals . In: Science . Volume 147, No. 3665, 1965, pp. 1543-1548, doi: 10.1126 / science.147.3665.1543 .

literature

• Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards. Chapter 3 in: Mark E. Borrello: Evolutionary Restraints. The Contentious History of Group Selection. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2010, ISBN 978-0-226-06703-2 , pp. 40-55.
• Ian Newton: In Memoriam: VC Wynne-Edwards, 1906-1997. In: The Auk. Volume 116, No. 3, 1999, pp. 815-816.

Web links

• Obituary: Vero Wynne-Edwards. On: independent.co.uk January 11, 1997.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Vero C. Wynne-Edwards: Backstage and Upstage with 'Animal Dispersion'. In: Donald A. Dewsbury: Studying Animal Behavior. Autobiographies of the Founders. Chicago University Press, Chicago and London 1985, ISBN 978-0-226-14410-8 , pp. 486-512, here: p. 488.
2. ↑ Vero C. Wynne-Edwards, Backstage and Upstage with 'Animal Dispersion' , p. 500.
3. ^ The Edinburgh Gazette, January 8, 1946: Scottish Home Department notice . ( Memento from April 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ Jeannie and Vero Wynne-Edwards Collection. At: library.queensu.ca , last accessed on June 3, 2020.
5. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed June 2, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Ian Newton : Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards, CBE 4 July 1906 to 5 January 1997. In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. Volume 44, 1998, doi: 10.1098 / rsbm.1998.0030 .
7. ↑ The London Gazette, December 29, 1972, Supplement 45860, p. 8.
8. ↑ Vero Wynne-Edwards, 90, Evolution Theorist. ( Memento of November 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Obituary in the New York Times .