Back to Search Start Over

The biogenetic law and the Gastraea theory: From Ernst Haeckel's discoveries to contemporary views

Authors :
Lennart Olsson
Uwe Hoßfeld
Paul Lukas
Benjamin Naumann
Georgy S. Levit
Source :
Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution. 338:13-27
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Wiley, 2021.

Abstract

More than 150 years ago, in 1866, Ernst Haeckel published a book in two volumes called Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (General Morphology of Organisms) in the first volume of which he formulated his biogenetic law, famously stating that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Here, we describe Haeckel's original idea as first formulated in the Generelle Morphologie der Organismen and later further developed in other publications until the present situation in which molecular data are used to test the "hourglass model," which can be seen as a modern version of the biogenetic law. We also tell the story about his discovery, while traveling in Norway, of an unknown organism, Magosphaera planula, that was important in that it helped to precipitate his ideas into what was to become the Gastraea theory. We also follow further development and reformulations of the Gastraea theory by other scientists, notably the Russian school. Elias Metchnikoff developed the Phagocytella hypothesis for the origin of metazoans based on studies of a colonial flagellate. Alexey Zakhvatin focused on deducing the ancestral life cycle and the cell types of the last common ancestor of all metazoans, and Kirill V. Mikhailov recently pursued this line of research further.

Details

ISSN :
15525015 and 15525007
Volume :
338
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....01332a5cd2fe9595c9816bd48e952b53
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.b.23039