Alfred G. Mayer

Alfred Goldsborough Mayor born Mayer (April 16, 1868 – June 24, 1922) was an American physicist, marine biologist and zoologist, whose fascination with medusae (jellyfish) while working with Alexander Agassiz marked a turning point in his career which shifted from physics to biology.

Mayor was born in Sunnyside, Frederick, Maryland, the son of Katherine Duckett (Goldsborough) and Alfred Marshall Mayer.

He studied the colors and patterns of butterflies and moths under Edward L. Mark[3] and was encouraged by Alexander Agassiz at Newport.

Professor Blake stated that," [Alfred was] successful in Physics,...his true taste and longings were toward natural history."

In 1907 Mayor founded the Tortugas Laboratory on Garden Key (today Fort Jefferson National Monument), maintained by the Carnegie Institution for Science, where each summer marine biologists studied the life of the coral reef.

He changed his family name from Mayer to Mayor on August 5, 1918 in the court of Mercer County, New Jersey to disassociate himself from his German ancestry.

He used a projection to examine the homologous areas of the wings of butterflies and commented that mimesis was restricted by the physiological abilities involved in pattern formation.

[5] In 1919 he studied corals off Samoa at 8.5 fathoms depth making use of a diving hood which may have made him prone to infection and illness.