Learning from history: morphology's challenges in Germany ca. 1900

Journal of Morphology
Lynn K Nyhart

Abstract

A century ago, Carl Gegenbaur's program of vertebrate evolutionary morphology faced its greatest challenges. The controversy over the evolutionary origin of the vertebrate paired limbs between 1875 and 1906 illustrates the failure of the traditional methods of comparative anatomy and embryology (supported by Haeckel's biogenetic law) to choose between different phylogenetic hypotheses. The controversy over morphology's status as science intensified at the turn of the twentieth century, when the legitimacy of historical explanation itself as a mode of scientific understanding came under fire. Gegenbaur's intellectual grandson, Hermann Braus, sought to defend the legitimacy of phylogenetic reconstruction while updating it to include experimental and causal-analytical approaches, but was unable to sustain a viable synthetic research program. The article concludes with reflections on approaches to the past used by historians and evolutionary morphologists.

References

Jan 1, 1983·Anatomy and Embryology·B BaeckerW G Forssmann
Mar 31, 2000·Bulletin of the History of Medicine·N Hopwood

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Citations

Nov 10, 2007·Theory in Biosciences = Theorie in Den Biowissenschaften·Christian Reiss
Oct 19, 2006·Theory in Biosciences = Theorie in Den Biowissenschaften·Günter P Wagner
Feb 27, 2004·Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B, Molecular and Developmental Evolution·Manfred D Laubichler
Feb 27, 2004·Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B, Molecular and Developmental Evolution·Günter P Wagner, Hans C E Larsson
Feb 5, 2004·Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B, Molecular and Developmental Evolution·Rudolf A Raff, Alan C Love
Sep 26, 2003·Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B, Molecular and Developmental Evolution·Manfred D Laubichler, Günter P Wagner
May 31, 2012·Journal of Experimental Zoology. Part B, Molecular and Developmental Evolution·Hans C E Larsson, Günter P Wagner
Jun 26, 2003·Evolution & Development·Alan C Love, Rudolf A Raff
Jan 5, 2021·Journal of Morphology·Daniel G Blackburn, James R Stewart

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