Abstract
Ernst Haeckel formulated his biogenetic law, famously stating that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, in 1872. The Russian evolutionist Alexei Sewertzoff, and the Swiss-born zoologist Adolf Naef were among those who revised Haeckel’s law, thus changing the course of evolutionary theory and of developmental biology. Although Sewertzoff and Naef approached the problem in a similar way and formulated similar hypotheses at a purely descriptive level, their theoretical viewpoints were crucially different. While Sewertzoff laid the foundations for a Darwinian evolutionary morphology and is regarded as a forerunner of the modern synthesis, Naef was one of the most important figures in “idealistic morphology”, which is usually seen as a type of anti-Darwinism. Both Naef and Sewertzoff aimed to revise Haeckel’s biogenetic law and came to comparable conclusions at the empirical level. This paper is an attempt to explain how their fundamentally different theoretical backgrounds influenced their views on the relationship between ontogeny and phylogeny.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bowler, P. J. (1992). The non-darwinian revolution. Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bowler, P. (1996). Life’s splendid drama. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.
Darwin, C. (1859). On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray.
Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex, 2 vols. London: John Murray.
de Beer, G. R. (1932). Book Review: A.N. Sewertzoff ‘Morphologische Gesetzmässigkeiten der Evolution’. Nature, 3257(129), 490–491.
Franz, V. (1927). Ontogenie und Phylogenie. Das sogenannte biogenetische Grundgesetz und die biometabolischen Modi. Berlin: Springer (Abhandlungen zur Theorie der organischen Entwicklung, III).
Gilbert, S. F. (2003). Evo-devo, devo-evo, and devgen-popgen. Biology and Philosophy, 18, 347–352.
Gould, S. J. (1977). Ontogeny and phylogeny. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Haeckel, E., (1866). Generelle Morphologie der Organismen, 2 Bde. Berlin: Georg Reimer.
Haeckel, E., (1872). Die Kalkschwämme. Eine Monographie, 3 Bde. Berlin: Georg Reimer.
Haeckel, E. (1874). Anthropogenie oder Entwickelungsgeschichte des Menschen. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.
Hall, B. K. (2000). Evo-devo or devo-evo: Does it matter? Evolution and Development, 2, 177–178.
Hossfeld, U. (2001). ‘Aufstieg und Fall’ der Evolutions Morphologie im deutschen Sprachraum: Aspekte des Recyclings eines interdisziplinären Konzepts. Gesnerus Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences, 58(1/2), 53–75.
Hossfeld, U., & Olsson, L. (2003). The road from Haeckel. Biology and Philosophy, 18, 285–307.
Levit, G. S., Hossfeld, U., & Olsson, L. (2004). The integration of Darwinism and evolutionary morphology: Alexei Nikolajevich Sewertzoff (1866–1936) and the developmental basis of evolutionary change. Journal of Experimental Zoology, 302B(4), 343–354.
Levit, G. S., Hossfeld, U., & Olsson, L. (2006). “From the ‘Modern Synthesis’ to cybernetics: Ivan Ivanovich Schmalhausen (1884–1963) and his research program for a synthesis of evolutionary and developmental biology. Journal of Experimental Zoology, 306B, 89–106.
Levit, G. S., & Meister, K. (2005). Methodological ideologies in the German-language morphology. Yearbook for European Culture of Science, 2, 35–62.
Levit, G. S., & Meister, K. (2006). The history of essentialism vs. Ernst Mayr’s ‘Essentialism story’: A case study of German idealistic morphology. Theory in Biosciences, 124(3–4), 281–307.
Mayr, E. (2001). What evolution is. New York: Basic Books.
Meister, K. (2005a). Metaphysische konsequenz: Die idealistische Morphologie Edgar Dacqués. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologische und Paläontologische Abhandlungen, 235, 197–233.
Meister, K. (2005b). Wilhelm Troll (1897–1978): Tradierung idealistischer Morphologie in den deutschen botanischen Wissenschaften des 20. Jahrhunderts. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 27(2), 221–247.
Mirzoyan, E.N., (1981). “Severtsov Alexey Nikolaevich”. In: C. C. Gillespie (Ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography vol. 11 (pp. 336–339). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Müller, F. (1864). Für Darwin. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.
Naef, A. (1911). Studien zur generellen Morphologie der Mollusken. Ergebnisse und Fortschritte der Zoologie, 3, 73–164.
Naef, A. (1913). Studien zur generellen Morphologie der Mollusken. 2. Das coelomsystem in seinen topographischen Beziehungen. Ergebnisse und Fortschritte der Zoologie, 3, 329–462.
Naef, A. (1917). Die individuelle Entwicklung organischer Formen als Urkunde ihrer Stammesgeschichte. Jena: Gustav Fischer.
Naef, A. (1919). Idealistische Morphologie und Phylogenetik. Jena: Gustav Fischer.
Naef, A. (1923). Über systematische Morphologie und ihre Bedeutung für die Wissenschaft und Lehre vom Leben. Vierteljahresschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft Zürich, 68, 387–397.
Naef, A., (1928). 2000, Cephalopoda. Embryology, English translation by S. V. Boletzky. Washington: Smithsonian Institute Libraries.
Naef, A. (1931). Phylogenie der Tiere. In E. Baur & M. Hartmann (Eds.), Handbuch der vererbungswissenschaft (Vol. 3). Berlin: Bornträger.
Olsson, L. (2005). Alternatives to Darwinism in Sweden: Lamarckism and idealistic morphology, disbelief in mutations and the poverty of selection. Jahrbuch für Europäische Wissenschaftskultur, 1, 47–60.
Reif, W.-E. (1998). Adolf Naefs idealistische Morphologie und das Paradigma der Evolutionstheorien. Verhandlungen zur Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie, 1, 411–424.
Rieppel, O. (2011a). Wilhelm Troll (1897–1978): idealistic morphology, physics, and phylogenetics. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 33, 321–342.
Rieppel, O. (2011b). Adolf Naef (1883–1949), systematic morphology and phylogenetics. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolution Research, 50, 2–13.
Rieppel, O., Williams, D. M., & Ebach, M. C. (2013). Adolf Naef (1883–1949): on foundational concepts and principles of systematic morphology. Journal of the History of Biology, 46(3), 445–510.
Schmalhausen, I. I. (1969). Problemy darwinizma. Leningrad: Nauka. (in Russian).
Severtzov, A. S. (1970). On the evolution of ontogenesis. Journal of General Biology, 31(2), 222–235.
Severtzov, A. S. (2012). A.N. Sewertzoff and the regularities of macroevolution. In E. I. Kolchinsky (Ed.), The Architects of Modern Evolutionary Synthesis (pp. 80–110). St. Petersburg, Russian Academy of Sciences: Nestor-Istorija. (in Russian).
Sewertzoff, A. N. (1910). Evolutzija i embryologija. Moscow: Moscow University. (in Russian).
Sewertzoff, A. N. (1912). Etudy po teorii evoliutzii. Kiev: University of Saint Vladimir. (in Russian).
Sewertzoff, A. N. (1927). Über die Beziehung zwischen der Ontogenese und Phylogenese der Tiere. Jenaische Zeitschrift für Naturwissenschaften, 63, 51–180.
Sewertzoff, A. N. (1931). Morphologische Gesetzmäßigkeiten der Evolution. Jena: Gustav Fischer.
Sewertzoff, A. N. (1934). Morfologitcheskije zakonomernosti evoliutzonnogo prozessa. Sozialisticheskaja Rekonstruktzija i Nauka, 83, 21–37. (in Russian).
Sewertzoff, A. N. (1939). Morfologitcheskije zakonomernosti evoliutzii. Moscow-Leningrad: Izdatelstvo Akademii Nauk. (in Russian).
Sewertzoff, A. N. (1949). Sobranije sotchinenij (Vol. 5). Moscow: Izdatelstvo Akademii Nauk. [in Russian].
Ulrich, W. (1968). Ernst Haeckel: ‘Generelle Morphologie’, 1866 (Fortsetzung und Schluß). Zoologische Beiträge NF, 14, 213–311.
Uschmann, G. (1966). 100 Jahre ‘Generelle Morphologie’. Biologische Rundschau, 5, 241–252.
Acknowledgments
We are delighted to participate in this special issue celebrating Christiane Groeben’s life-long commitment to the history of biology. We are thankful to Christiane for many years of intensive and stimulating discussions as well as for her readiness to share her knowledge in support of the community of historians of science and biologists.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Levit, G.S., Hossfeld, U. & Olsson, L. Alexei Sewertzoff and Adolf Naef: revising Haeckel’s biogenetic law. HPLS 36, 357–370 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-014-0043-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-014-0043-9