Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis

Abstract

In the year 1866, Ernst Haeckel (1843–1919) formulated his so-called basic law of biogenetics, which postulated that human ontogenesis recapitulates phylogenesis in abbreviated form. At that time, the idea prevailed that development is a continuous progress from the inferior to the superior, especially since excavations had fostered the concept of a history of living beings (phylogenesis) as a continuously ascending development of species. Comparative anatomy, much celebrated at the beginning of the 19th century and mainly concerned with vertebrates, was entirely conceived in this sense.

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