Ebook Ontogeny and Phylogeny, by Stephen Jay Gould

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Ontogeny and Phylogeny, by Stephen Jay Gould

Ebook Ontogeny and Phylogeny, by Stephen Jay Gould

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Review

“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.”―James Gorman, New York Times Book Review“Steven 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 different ontogenies. 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 a functional interpretation of those phylogenetic alterations that involve changes of timing developmental processes in related organisms.”―A. J. Cain, Nature“This [is a] fat, handsome book crammed with provocative ideas… Ontogeny and Phylogeny is an important and thoughtful book which will be a valuable source of ideas and controversies for anyone interested in evolutionary or developmental biology.”―Matt Cartmill, Science“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.”―S. Rachootin, American Scientist“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.”―D. Futuyma, Quarterly Review of Biology“A distinguished and pioneering work.”―Ernst Mayr

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From the Back Cover

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.

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Product details

Paperback: 520 pages

Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press; Later prt. edition (January 17, 1985)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0674639413

ISBN-13: 978-0674639416

Product Dimensions:

6.1 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

4.4 out of 5 stars

14 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#895,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

One of the best of Dr. Gould's books, and there are many. Good science very well explained.

Excellent copy and shipped fast. This is one of the books that I have been waiting to read. clean book.

The book purchased was a used copy of Stephen Gould's "Ontogeny and Phylogeny" in paperback. The book was no surprise since I knew what it was. Condition was as advertised, I think, but was excellent at any rate. Delivery was within a reasonable time. So this was a very satisfactory transaction from my point of view, excellent book for a reasonable price within a sensible time period. What else to expect?

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) wrote many other important books, such as The Structure of Evolutionary Theory,The Panda's Thumb,Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes,The Flamingo's Smile,Bully for Brontosaurus,Eight Little Piggies,Dinosaur in a Haystack,Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms,I Have Landed: Ultimate Reflections in Natural History, etc.He wrote in the “Acknowledgements” section of this 1977 book, “I view this book as an organism. I have lived with it for six years… Ernst Mayr, in a passing comment, suggested that I write this book. I only began it as a practice run to learn the style of lengthy exposition before embarking on my magnum opus about macroevolution. And I’m mighty glad I did because, in the meantime, my views on macroevolution have changed drastically and my original plan, had it been executed, would now be an embarrassment to me.” (Pg. vii-viii)He outlines in the first chapter, “I began this book as an indulgent, antiquarian exercise in personal interest. I hoped, at best, to retrieve from its current limbo the ancient subject of parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny… But I soon decided that the subject needs no apology. Properly restructured, it stands as a central theme in evolutionary biology because it illuminates two issues of great contemporary importance: the evolution of ecological strategies and the biology of recapitulation… this book is primarily a long argument for the evolutionary importance of ‘heterochrony’---changes in the relative time of appearance and rate of development for characters already present in ancestors… This book emphasizes … the changes in developmental timing that produce parallels between the stages of ontogeny and phylogeny.” (Pg. 2) He adds, “Another motive for writing the book is my belief that the history of recapitulation illustrates some generalities about science that will surprise no historian but prove interesting to many scientists… Recapitulation was largely impervious to empirical disproof by accumulated exceptions. It fell when it became unfashionable in practice, following the rise of experimental embryology, and untenable in theory, following scientific change in … Mendelian genetics.” (Pg. 6)He explains, “I wish to emphasize one other distinction. Evolution occurs when ontogeny is altered in one of two ways: when new characters are introduced at any stage of development with varying effects upon subsequent stages, or when characters already present undergo changes in developmental timing.” (Pg. 4) He goes on, “‘Neoteny’ … represents the retardation of somatic development for selected organs and parts… Neoteny has been a (probably THE) major determinant of human evolution… Human development has slowed down. Within this ‘matrix of retardation,’ adaptive features of ancestral juveniles are easily retained. Retardation as a life-history strategy for longer learning and socialization may be far more important in human evolution than any of its morphological consequences.” (Pg. 9)He suggests, “Recapitulation, in altered form, might have survived the collapse of terminal addition had it been able to retain a law of condensation. Recapitulationists … could still have maintained that new characters, wherever they arise, are always transferred back to appear earlier in descendant ontogenies. Ancestral features would always appear in more juvenile stages of descendants. This last hope for universal recapitulation was dashed by the discovery that genes act by controlling the RATES of processes.” (Pg. 204-205) He summarizes, “But recapitulation was not ‘disproved’; … It was, instead, abandoned as a universal proposition and displayed as but one possible result of a more general process---evolutionary alteration of times and rates to produce acceleration and retardation in the ontogenetic development of specific characters… I shall devote the rest of this book to exploring the consequences of this generalization.” (Pg. 206)He observes, “The notion of a parallel has been among the most important themes in the history of biology since Aristotle’s time… I have a faith that the most formidable intellects of the past cannot have been so deluded that they persistently centered their discussion on a trivial part of a larger subject. I will therefore assume that it is still important to discuss what constitutes a parallel between the stages of ontogeny and phylogeny, and to distinguish between the processes producing such parallels from other relationships between embryology and evolution.” (Pg. 212-213)He outlines, “I shall be emphasizing the immediate significance of heterochrony throughout the rest of this book, primarily because it has been so widely ignored. In so doing, I am neither attacking traditional arguments… nor trying to undermine the concept of retrospective significance in general. In fact, my ulterior motive as a paleontologist is to prove the importance of my profession by demonstrating that the study of macroevolution, with its emphasis on retrospective significance, cannot be subsumed in the study of living populations, with its necessary concern for immediate significance alone.” (Pg. 286) Later, he adds, “Since heterochrony can arise rapidly and ‘easily’ by an alteration in endocrine balance, it seems reasonable to consider even large paedomorphic changes in terms of their immediate significance for evolution of life-history strategies in differing ecological circumstances.” (Pg. 302)After showing a photograph illustrating that baby chimpanzees are much more “manlike” than adult chimps, he comments, “The resemblance of adult humans to juvenile apes was treated as an anomaly throughout the heyday of recapitulation. But single ugly facts… do not destroy great theories… E.D. Cope considered the problem in great detail and admitted that many human features had evolved by retardation. But he quickly added that these retarded features were not involved in our superiority, and that the progressive features of our mental development displayed acceleration and recapitulation.” (Pg. 355) He adds, “The structural sequence of Australopithecus africanus, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens exhibits a progressive retention of juvenile proportions by adults as the brain increases and the jaw decreases. Moreover, the juveniles of Taung and Modjokerto prophesy, so to speak, the proportions later attained by descendant adults; no reference to the idealized juvenile form of a hypothetical ancestor is needed.” (Pg. 358)He notes, “What juvenile among living primates is most similar in form to the young stages of our forebears? The answer must be: our own juvenile form itself… If we choose a sufficiently early stage, the fetus of practically any higher primate (human and chimp included) can serve as a reasonable prototype… We might as well use the juvenile stage of each species as its own prototype and judge our relative paedomorphosis by the following criterion: do we as adults depart less from our own early form than other higher primates do from theirs.” (Pg. 387-388)He concludes, “Throughout this book, I have tried to demonstrate that heterochrony is extremely important in evolution---both in frequency of occurrence and as the basis of significant evolutionary change. I hope that I have added thereby some support for the belief that alterations in regulation form the major stuff of evolutionary change. The reconciliation of our gradualistic bias with the appearance of discontinuity is a classical problem of intellectual history… External discontinuity may well be inherent in underlying continuity, provided that a system displays enough complexity. The evolution of consciousness can scarcely be matched as a momentous event in the history of life; yet I doubt that its efficient cause required much more than a heterochronic extension of fetal growth rates and patterns of cell proliferation… permutation of the old within complex systems can do wonders. As biologists, we deal directly with the kind of material complexity that confers and unbounded potential upon simple, continuous changes in underlying processes. This is the chief joy of our science.” (Pg. 409)Besides being a highly creative evolutionary theorist, Gould was also a brilliant writer and an engaged "public intellectual." His presence is sorely missed on the scientific and literary scene.

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) wrote many other important books, such as The Structure of Evolutionary Theory,The Panda's Thumb,Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes,The Flamingo's Smile,Bully for Brontosaurus,Eight Little Piggies,Dinosaur in a Haystack,Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms,I Have Landed: Ultimate Reflections in Natural History, etc.[NOTE: page numbers refer to the 501-page 1977 paperback edition.]He wrote in the “Acknowledgements” section of this 1977 book, “I view this book as an organism. I have lived with it for six years… Ernst Mayr, in a passing comment, suggested that I write this book. I only began it as a practice run to learn the style of lengthy exposition before embarking on my magnum opus about macroevolution. And I’m mighty glad I did because, in the meantime, my views on macroevolution have changed drastically and my original plan, had it been executed, would now be an embarrassment to me.” (Pg. vii-viii)He outlines in the first chapter, “I began this book as an indulgent, antiquarian exercise in personal interest. I hoped, at best, to retrieve from its current limbo the ancient subject of parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny… But I soon decided that the subject needs no apology. Properly restructured, it stands as a central theme in evolutionary biology because it illuminates two issues of great contemporary importance: the evolution of ecological strategies and the biology of recapitulation… this book is primarily a long argument for the evolutionary importance of ‘heterochrony’---changes in the relative time of appearance and rate of development for characters already present in ancestors… This book emphasizes … the changes in developmental timing that produce parallels between the stages of ontogeny and phylogeny.” (Pg. 2) He adds, “Another motive for writing the book is my belief that the history of recapitulation illustrates some generalities about science that will surprise no historian but prove interesting to many scientists… Recapitulation was largely impervious to empirical disproof by accumulated exceptions. It fell when it became unfashionable in practice, following the rise of experimental embryology, and untenable in theory, following scientific change in … Mendelian genetics.” (Pg. 6)He explains, “I wish to emphasize one other distinction. Evolution occurs when ontogeny is altered in one of two ways: when new characters are introduced at any stage of development with varying effects upon subsequent stages, or when characters already present undergo changes in developmental timing.” (Pg. 4) He goes on, “‘Neoteny’ … represents the retardation of somatic development for selected organs and parts… Neoteny has been a (probably THE) major determinant of human evolution… Human development has slowed down. Within this ‘matrix of retardation,’ adaptive features of ancestral juveniles are easily retained. Retardation as a life-history strategy for longer learning and socialization may be far more important in human evolution than any of its morphological consequences.” (Pg. 9)He suggests, “Recapitulation, in altered form, might have survived the collapse of terminal addition had it been able to retain a law of condensation. Recapitulationists … could still have maintained that new characters, wherever they arise, are always transferred back to appear earlier in descendant ontogenies. Ancestral features would always appear in more juvenile stages of descendants. This last hope for universal recapitulation was dashed by the discovery that genes act by controlling the RATES of processes.” (Pg. 204-205) He summarizes, “But recapitulation was not ‘disproved’; … It was, instead, abandoned as a universal proposition and displayed as but one possible result of a more general process---evolutionary alteration of times and rates to produce acceleration and retardation in the ontogenetic development of specific characters… I shall devote the rest of this book to exploring the consequences of this generalization.” (Pg. 206)He observes, “The notion of a parallel has been among the most important themes in the history of biology since Aristotle’s time… I have a faith that the most formidable intellects of the past cannot have been so deluded that they persistently centered their discussion on a trivial part of a larger subject. I will therefore assume that it is still important to discuss what constitutes a parallel between the stages of ontogeny and phylogeny, and to distinguish between the processes producing such parallels from other relationships between embryology and evolution.” (Pg. 212-213)He outlines, “I shall be emphasizing the immediate significance of heterochrony throughout the rest of this book, primarily because it has been so widely ignored. In so doing, I am neither attacking traditional arguments… nor trying to undermine the concept of retrospective significance in general. In fact, my ulterior motive as a paleontologist is to prove the importance of my profession by demonstrating that the study of macroevolution, with its emphasis on retrospective significance, cannot be subsumed in the study of living populations, with its necessary concern for immediate significance alone.” (Pg. 286) Later, he adds, “Since heterochrony can arise rapidly and ‘easily’ by an alteration in endocrine balance, it seems reasonable to consider even large paedomorphic changes in terms of their immediate significance for evolution of life-history strategies in differing ecological circumstances.” (Pg. 302)After showing a photograph illustrating that baby chimpanzees are much more “manlike” than adult chimps, he comments, “The resemblance of adult humans to juvenile apes was treated as an anomaly throughout the heyday of recapitulation. But single ugly facts… do not destroy great theories… E.D. Cope considered the problem in great detail and admitted that many human features had evolved by retardation. But he quickly added that these retarded features were not involved in our superiority, and that the progressive features of our mental development displayed acceleration and recapitulation.” (Pg. 355) He adds, “The structural sequence of Australopithecus africanus, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens exhibits a progressive retention of juvenile proportions by adults as the brain increases and the jaw decreases. Moreover, the juveniles of Taung and Modjokerto prophesy, so to speak, the proportions later attained by descendant adults; no reference to the idealized juvenile form of a hypothetical ancestor is needed.” (Pg. 358)He notes, “What juvenile among living primates is most similar in form to the young stages of our forebears? The answer must be: our own juvenile form itself… If we choose a sufficiently early stage, the fetus of practically any higher primate (human and chimp included) can serve as a reasonable prototype… We might as well use the juvenile stage of each species as its own prototype and judge our relative paedomorphosis by the following criterion: do we as adults depart less from our own early form than other higher primates do from theirs.” (Pg. 387-388)He concludes, “Throughout this book, I have tried to demonstrate that heterochrony is extremely important in evolution---both in frequency of occurrence and as the basis of significant evolutionary change. I hope that I have added thereby some support for the belief that alterations in regulation form the major stuff of evolutionary change. The reconciliation of our gradualistic bias with the appearance of discontinuity is a classical problem of intellectual history… External discontinuity may well be inherent in underlying continuity, provided that a system displays enough complexity. The evolution of consciousness can scarcely be matched as a momentous event in the history of life; yet I doubt that its efficient cause required much more than a heterochronic extension of fetal growth rates and patterns of cell proliferation… permutation of the old within complex systems can do wonders. As biologists, we deal directly with the kind of material complexity that confers and unbounded potential upon simple, continuous changes in underlying processes. This is the chief joy of our science.” (Pg. 409)Besides being a highly creative evolutionary theorist, Gould was also a brilliant writer and an engaged "public intellectual." His presence is sorely missed on the scientific and literary scene.

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