Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and the First Embryological Evolutionary Model on the Origin of Vertebrates

Historiographical accounts typically place the formulation of the first embryological theory of the evolutionary origin of vertebrates after the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859). However, the French naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire developed an embryological evolution...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Galera Gómez, Andrés
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión enviada para evaluación y publicación
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/339495
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/339495
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Étienne Geofroy Saint-Hilaire
Evolutionary embryology
Theory of evolution
Vertebrate evolution
Descripción
Sumario:Historiographical accounts typically place the formulation of the first embryological theory of the evolutionary origin of vertebrates after the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859). However, the French naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire developed an embryological evolutionary model in the 1820s that followed the Lamarckian theory. Geoffroy was the first to establish a direct embryological relationship between vertebrates and invertebrates. This idea was not forgotten, and the embryologists Anton Dohrn and Carl Semper subsequently updated it in their annelid theory as part of a debate about the origin of vertebrates that occurred during the latter part of the nineteenth century. This paper reviews the traditional historiography, analyzing and integrating Geoffroy’s model into the current body of ideas.