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Introduction—development and phylogeny of the arthropods: Darwin’s legacy

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Abstract

In the present essay, I first recall the genealogical concept of classification settled by Charles Darwin in the Origin of Species. Darwin tightly linked what we now call phylogeny and development. He often insisted to take into account embryonic and larval characters, most often using as examples his favourite animals, the cirripedes. Then I discuss remaining problems, and also perspectives, to address the link between phylogeny and development in the modern terms of molecular and cladistic phylogenetics and of molecular and genetic developmental biology.

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Acknowledgement

I thank Eric Quéinnec for his comments on a previous draft of this manuscript and for signalling Cracraft’s paper. I am grateful to Gerhard Scholtz and to an anonymous referee for careful reading of this manuscript and helpful suggestions.

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  1. Développement et Évolution, UMR 7622, CNRS et Université P. et M. Curie, Paris, France

    Jean S. Deutsch

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Correspondence to Jean S. Deutsch.

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Deutsch, J.S. Introduction—development and phylogeny of the arthropods: Darwin’s legacy. Dev Genes Evol 216, 357–362 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-006-0089-0

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