Ontogeny and Phylogeny

Ontogeny and Phylogeny
AuthorStephen Jay Gould
LanguageEnglish
SubjectsOntogeny, phylogeny
PublisherBelknap Press of Harvard University Press
Publication date
1977
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages501
ISBN0674639405
LC ClassQH371 .G68

Ontogeny and Phylogeny is a 1977 book on evolution by Stephen Jay Gould, in which he explores the relationship between embryonic development (ontogeny) and biological evolution (phylogeny). Unlike his many popular books of essays, it was a technical book, and over the following decades it was influential in stimulating research into heterochrony (changes in the timing of embryonic development), which had been neglected since Ernst Haeckel's theory that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny had been largely discredited. This helped to create the field of evolutionary developmental biology.