"Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" was Haeckel's answer--the wrong one--to the most vexing question of nineteenth-century biology: what is the relationship between individual development (ontogeny) and the evolution of species and lineages (phylogeny)? In this, the first major book on the subject in fifty years, Stephen Gould documents the history of the idea of recapitulation from its first appearance among the pre-Socratics to its fall in the early twentieth century.

Mr. Gould explores recapitulation as an idea that intrigued politicians and theologians as well as scientists. He shows that Haeckel's hypothesis--that human fetuses with gill slits are, literally, tiny fish, exact replicas of their water-breathing ancestors--had an influence that extended beyond biology into education, criminology, psychoanalysis (Freud and Jung were devout recapitulationists), and racism. The theory of recapitulation, Gould argues, finally collapsed not from the weight of contrary data, but because the rise of Mendelian genetics rendered it untenable.

Turning to modern concepts, Gould demonstrates that, even though the whole subject of parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny fell into disrepute, it is still one of the great themes of evolutionary biology. Heterochrony--changes in developmental timing, producing parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny--is shown to be crucial to an understanding of gene regulation, the key to any rapprochement between molecular and evolutionary biology. Gould argues that the primary evolutionary value of heterochrony may lie in immediate ecological advantages for slow or rapid maturation, rather than in long-term changes of form, as all previous theories proclaimed.

Neoteny--the opposite of recapitulation--is shown to be the most important determinant of human evolution. We have evolved by retaining the juvenile characters of our ancestors and have achieved both behavioral flexibility and our characteristic morphology thereby (large brains by prolonged retention of rapid fetal growth rates, for example).

Gould concludes that there may be nothing new under the sun, but permutation of the old within complex systems can do wonders. As biologists, we deal directly with the kind of material complexity that confers an unbounded potential upon simple, continuous changes in underlying processes. This is the chief joy of our science."

Gould's book--pervaded, I should say, with an erudition and felicity of style that make it a delight to read--is a radical work in every sense...It returns one's attention to the roots of our science--the questions about the great pageant of evolution, the marvelous diversity of form that our theory is meant to explain.

In Gould's...new book...Ontogeny and Phylogeny, a scholarly study of the theory of recapitulation, he not only explains scientific theory but comments on science itself, with clarity and wit, simultaneously entertaining and teaching...[This] is a rich book.

It is rare indeed to read a new book and recognize it for a classic...Gould has given biologists a new way to see the organisms they study. The result is a major achievement.

This [is a] fat, handsome book crammed with provocative ideas...Ontogeny and Phylogenyis an important and thoughtful book which will be a valuable source of ideas and controversies for anyone interested in evolutionary or developmental biology.

A distinguished and pioneering work.

Steve Jay Gould has given us a superb analysis of the use of ontogenetic analogy, the controversies over ontogeny and phylogeny, and the classification of the different processes observable in comparing differentontogenies. His massive book (in each chapter of which there is as much material as in whole books by other writers) is both a historical exposition of the whole subject of ontogeny and phylogeny, and...a fascinating attempt at afunctional interpretation of those phylogenetic alterations that involve changes of timing developmental processes in related organisms.

In this, the first major book on the subject in fifty years, Stephen Jay Gould documents the history of the idea of recapitulation from its appearance among the pre-Socratics to its demise in the early twentieth century.

Stephen Jay Gouldwas the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at <>Harvard Universityand Vincent Astor Visiting Professor of Biology at <>New York University. A MacArthur Prize Fellow, he received innumerable honors and awards and wrote many books, including Ontogeny and Phylogenyand Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle(both from Harvard).

1. Prospectus

PART ONE RECAPITULATION

2. The Analogistic Tradition from Anaximander to Bonnet

The Seeds of Recapitulation in Greek Science?

Ontogeny and Phylogeny in the Conflict of "Evolution" and Epigenesis: The Idyll of Charles Bonnet

Appendix: The Revolution in "Evolution"

3. Transcendental Origins, 1793-1860

Naturphilosophie: An Expression of Developmentalism

Two Leading Recapitulationists among the Naturphilosophen: Oken and Meckel

Oken's Classification of Animals Linear Additions of Organs

J. F. Meckel's Sober Statement of the Same Principles

Serres and the French Transcendentalists

Recapitulation and the Theory of Developmental Arrests

Von Baer's Critique of Recapitulation

The Direction of Development and Classification of Animals

Von Baer and Naturphilosophie: What Is the Universal Direction of Development?

Louis Agassiz and the Threefold Parallelism

4. Evolutionary Triumph, 1859-1900

Evolutionary Theory and Zoological Practice

Darwin and the Evolution of Von Baer' Laws

Evolution and the Mechanics of Recapitulation

Ernst Haeckel: Phylogeny as the Mechanical Cause of Ontogeny

The Mechanism of Recapitulation

The American Neo-Lamarckians: The Law of Acceleration as Evolution's Motor

Progressive Evolution by Acceleration

The Extent of Parallelism

Why Does Recapitulation Dominate the History of Life?

Alpheus Hyatt and Universal Acceleration

Lamarckism and the Memory Analogy

Recapitulation and Darwinism

Appendix: The Evolutionary Translation of von Baer's Laws

5. Pervasive Influence

Criminal Anthropology

Racism

Child Development

Primary Education

Freudian Psychoanalysis

Epilogue

6. Decline, Fall, and Generalization

A Clever Argument

An Empirical Critique

Organs or Ancestors: The Transformation of Haeckel's Heterochrony

Interpolations into juvenile Stages

Introduction of Juvenile Features into the Adults of Descendants

What Had Become of von Baer's Critique?

Benign Neglect: Recapitulation and the Rise of Experimental Embryology

The Prior Assumptions of Recapitulation

Wilhelm His and His Physiological Embryology: A Preliminary Skirmish

Roux's Entwicklungsmechanik and the Biogenetic Low

Recapitulation and Substantive Issues in Experimental Embryology: The New Preformationism

Mendel's Resurrection, Haeckel's Fall, and the Generalization of Recapitulation

PART TWO HETEROCHRONY AND PAEDOMORPHOSIS

7. Heterochrony and the Parallel of Ontogeny and Phylogeny

Acceleration and Retardation

Confusion in and after Haeckel's Wake

Guidelines for a Resolution

The Reduction of de Beer's Categories of Heterochrony to Acceleration and Retardation

A Historical Paradox: The Supposed Dominance of Recapitulation

Dissociability and Heterochrony

Correlation and Disociability

Dissociation of the Three Processes

A Metric for Dissociation

Temporal Shift as a Mechanism of Dissociation

A Clock Model of Heterochrony

Appendix: A Note on the Multivariate Representation of Dissociation

8. The Ecological and Evolutionary Significance of Heterochrony

The Argument from Frequency

The Importance of Recapitulation

The Importance of Heterochronic Change: Selected Cases

Frequency of Paedomorphosis in the Origin of Higher Taxa

A Critique of the Classical Significance of Heterochrony

The Classical Arguments

Retrospective and Immediate Significance

Heterochrony, Ecology, and Life-History Strategies

The Potential Ease and Rapidity of Heterochronic Change

The Control of Metamorphosis in Insects

Amphibian Paedomorphosis and the Thyroid Gland

9. Progenesis and Neoteny Insect Progenesis

Prothetely and Metathetely

Paedogenesis (Partheno genetic Progenesis) in Gall Midges and Beetles

Progenesis in Wingless, Partheno genetic Aphids

Additional Cases of Progenesis with a Similar Ecological Basis

Neotenic Solitary Locusts: Are They an Exception to the Rule?

Amphibian Neoteny

The Ecological Determinants of Progenesis

Unstable Environments

Colonization

Parasites

Male Dispersal

Progenesis as an Adaptive Response to Pressures for Small Size

The Role of Heterochrony in Macroevolution: Contrasting Flexibilities for Progenesis and Neoteny

Progenesis

Neoteny

The Social Correlates of Neoteny in Higher Vertebrates

10. Retardation and Neoteny in Human Evolution

The Seeds of Neoteny

The Fetalization Theory of Louis Bolk

Bolk's Data

Bolk's Interpretation

Bolk's Evolutionary Theory

A Tradition of Argument

Retardation in Human Evolution

Morphology in the Matrix of Retardation

Of Enumeration

Of Prototypes

Of Correlation

The Adaptive Significance of Retarded Development

11. Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Glossary

Index