Theory of Recapitulation | Development | Organisms | Biology

Recapitulation is a bold and influential idea that is particularly associated with Ernst Haeckel though many other biologists also supported it in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. According to the theory of recapitulation, the stages of an organism’s development correspond to the species’ phylogenetic history- in a phrase, “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” Each stage in development corresponds to (that is, [...]