Approaches and Species in the History of Vertebrate Embryology

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Abstract

Recent debates about model organisms echo far into the past; taking a longer view adds perspective to present concerns. The major approaches in the history of research on vertebrate embryos have tended to exploit different species, though there are long-term continuities too. Early nineteenth-century embryologists worked on surrogates for humans and began to explore the range of vertebrate embryogenesis; late nineteenth-century Darwinists hunted exotic ontogenies; around 1900 experimentalists favored living embryos in which they could easily intervene; reproductive scientists tackled farm animals and human beings; after World War II developmental biologists increasingly engineered species for laboratory life; and proponents of evo-devo have recently challenged the resulting dominance of a few models. Decisions about species have depended on research questions, biological properties, supply lines, and, not least, on methods. Nor are species simply chosen; embryology has transformed them even as they have profoundly shaped the science.

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Hopwood, N. (2011). Approaches and Species in the History of Vertebrate Embryology. In Methods in Molecular Biology (Vol. 770, pp. 1–20). Humana Press Inc. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-210-6_1

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