Archetypes and homology: the establishment of evolutionary developmental biology

Abstract

Embryology increasingly came to be viewed as the way to understand phylogeny. Von Baer played a pivotal role in this development (section 4.1): his ideas were rapidly assimilated into Britain as British scientists responded to the implications of the Geoffroy-Cuvier debate (section 4.2). A lasting impact was to be made in the separation of homology from analogy advocated by Sir Richard Owen (section 4.3). Darwin took account of these developments in formulating his theory (section 4.4). The search for embryological archetypes was carried furthest by Haeckel in Germany and Balfour in England (section 4.5). By the late 19th Century it appeared that the common solution to the generation of organismic form had been found and that it lay in conserved stages of embryonic development.

Homologue ... The same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function. Analogue ... A part or organ in one animal which has the same function as another part or organ in a different animal. (Owen, 1843, pp. 374, 379).