In the Spotlight-Postdoc.
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
Dynamical systems approach to evolution-development congruence: Revisiting Haeckel's recapitulation theory.
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
It is acknowledged that embryonic development has a tendency to proceed from common toward specific. Ernst Haeckel raised the question of why that tendency prevailed through evolution, and the question remains unsolved. Here, we revisit Haeckel's recapitulation theory, that is, the parallelism between evolution and development through numerical evo...
How can recapitulation be reconciled with modern concepts of evolution?
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
To understand Haeckel's idea of recapitulation with modern evolutionary biology, one has to realize how evolutionarily conserved embryonic stages appear sequentially in developmental processes as chains of causality. Whether the idea of evolution was accepted or not, Haeckel and von Baer commonly saw an importance of a particularly conserved mid-em...
In the spotlight-Established researcher.
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
Developmental evolution of the distal ankle in the dinosaur-bird transition.
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
The adult ankle of early reptiles had five distal tarsal (dt) bones, but in Dinosauria, these were reduced to only two: dt3 and dt4, articulated to metatarsals (mt) mt3 and mt4. Birds have a single distal tarsal ossification center that fuses to the proximal metatarsals to form a new adult skeletal structure: the composite tarsometatarsus. This oss...
The biogenetic law and the Gastraea theory: From Ernst Haeckel's discoveries to contemporary views.
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
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 Gene...
The developmental hourglass model and recapitulation: An attempt to integrate the two models.
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
Recapitulation is a hypothetical concept that assumes embryogenesis of an animal parallels its own phylogenetic history, sequentially developing from more ancestral features to more derived ones. This concept predicts that the earliest developmental stage of various animals should represent the most evolutionarily conserved patterns. Recent transcr...
On the sequence heterochrony of cranial ossification of bats in light of Haeckel's recapitulation theory.
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
Haeckel's recapitulation theory has been a controversial topic in evolutionary biology. However, we have seen some recent cases applying Haeckel's view to interpret the interspecific variation of prenatal ontogeny. To revisit the validity of Haeckel's recapitulation theory, we take bats that have undergone drastic morphological changes and possess ...
Measuring potential effects of the developmental burden associated with the vertebrate notochord.
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
The notochord functions primarily as a supporting tissue to maintain the anteroposterior axis of primitive chordates, a function that is replaced entirely by the vertebral column in many vertebrates. The notochord still appears during vertebrate embryogenesis and plays a crucial role in the developmental pattern formation of surrounding structures,...
Unraveling the heritage of lost traits.
Published in Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution
We synthesize ontogenetic work spanning the past century that show evolutionarily lost structures are rarely entirely absent from earlier developmental stages. We discuss morphological and genetic insights from developmental studies reveal about the evolution of trait loss and regain. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
