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Depiction of the exterior form of human embryos and fetuses at different stages of development. In: Müntz et al. (1983b: p. 129)
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In our era of computers and computer models, the importance of physical or graphical models for both research and education in developmental biology (embryology) is often forgotten or at least underappreciated. Still, one important aspect of embryology is the (evolutionary) developmental anatomy of both human and animal embryos. Here, we present a...
Citations
... Ernst Haeckel was arguably the most important continental figure on the frontlines of Darwinism during the latter part of the 19th century and into the 20th century ( Fig. 1; Richards, 2008;Rieppel, 2016;Joshi, 2018a;Watts et al., 2019;Kutschera et al., 2019;Hoßfeld et al., 2019). In his first major work, the two-volume General Morphology of Organisms (hereafter simply GM), appearing in 1866, Haeckel was the first biologist to offer detailed phylogenetic trees (otherwise referred to in current literature as 'genealogical trees') which included humans Watts et al., 2019). ...
... Already here he also called on evolutionary biology to take on not only the central, transformative role for all the biological sciences, but also more much beyond that as the foundation for a modern worldview oriented toward-and orienting others toward-the betterment of humanity as a whole, on the foundations of the natural sciences. Throughout his life, Haeckel was thus engaged in a kind of didactic mission (Dodel, 1906;Porges et al., 2019). Two years later Haeckel began to express his natural philosophical views in more popular form in his Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte [The History of Creation] (1868), which went through 9 editions and was translated into 12 languages, including English in 1876, and into Russian in 1908 HISTORY OF BIOLOGY (Kolchinsky and Levit, 2019). ...
... Within evolutionary biology itself, Haeckel developed Darwin's thought into further directions, including into the domain of embryology. Although the embryological regularities were known to many researchers before Haeckel, including his friend Gegenbaur, alongside Fritz Müller (1821-1897 he was among the first to formulate the 'fundamental law of biogenetics' (biogenetic law) [Biogenetisches Grundgesetz] (Junker and Hoßfeld, 2009;Hoßfeld et al., 2019). The 'Gastraea theory' as well as still current concepts such as ontogeny and phylogeny, trace back to Haeckel. ...
Since Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) published their trailblazing ideas, the scientific community's discussion of evolutionary biology has included the topic of embryological development. The concepts of ontogeny and phylogeny, still current in contemporary biology, together with the now obsolete biogenetic law and his Gastraea theory, which trace back to Haeckel, all underwent an evolution of their own in Haeckel's works. The record of this evolution makes clear how the features of his thinking that proved durable, such as ontogeny and phylogeny, were established as such through a difficult creative process of formation of concepts, theories, and terminology that themselves enjoyed varying fortunes. Beginning with Haeckel's Generelle Morphologie der Organismen [General Morphology of Organisms] (1866), this paper traces aspects of the conceptual and terminological evolution that takes place both within the pages of this highly complex but seminal work and then chronologically in later works. We include the use of text data mining of his works to establish and analyse word frequency patterns. We seek to indicate here some of the challenges Haeckel faced in establishing new concepts and terminology in the General Morphology (hereafter GM), and we draw attention to his efforts in later works to extend this didactic work.
... ВВЕДЕНИЕ Эрнст Геккель был, возможно, наиболее влиятельным ученым, работавшим на переднем крае развития дарвинизма в континентальной Европе конца XIX и начала XX веков (Figure 1; Richards, 2008;Rieppel, 2016;Joshi, 2018a;Watts et al., 2019;Kutschera et al., 2019;Hoßfeld et al., 2019) (рис. 1). ...
... Более того, с его точки зрения эволюционная биология должна выступать в качестве основы современного мировоззрения, ориентированного и ориентирующего других на улучшение человечества в целом, на фундаментальные аспекты естественных наук. В течение всей жизни Геккель был облечен своего рода дидактической миссией (Porges et al., 2019;Dodel, 1906). Спустя два года после выхода "Общей морфологии организмов" он выразил свои натурфилософские идеи в более популярной форме сначала в "Естественной истории мироздания" (Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte) (Haeckel, 1868), которое выдержало 9 изданий и было переведено на 12 языков, включая английское издание 1876 года и русское издание 1908 года (Kolchinsky, Levit, 2019). ...
... В рамках эволюционной биологии Геккель распространил идеи Дарвина на несколько направлений, в том числе на область эмбриологии. Хотя закономерности эмбрионального развития были известны многим исследователям до Геккеля, включая его друга Гегенбауэра, а также Фрица Мюллера , Геккель одним из первых сформулировал "фундаментальный закон биогенетики" (биогенетический закон) [Biogenetisches Grundgesetz] (Junker, Hoßfeld, 2009;Hoßfeld et al., 2016;Hoßfeld et al., 2019). Теория гастреи, как и до сих пор актуальные концепции, такие как онтогенез и филогенез, восходят к Геккелю. ...
From Idea to Law: Theory, Concept and Terminological Formation
in Ernst Haeckel’s Works
Since Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) published their trailblazing ideas, the scientific community’s discussion of evolutionary biology has included the topic of embryological development. The concepts of ontogeny and phylogeny, still current in contemporary biology, together with the now obsolete biogenetic law and his Gastraea theory, which trace back to Haeckel, all underwent an evolution of their own in Haeckel’s works. The record of this evolution makes clear how the features of his thinking that proved durable, such as ontogeny and phylogeny, were established as such through a difficult creative process of formation of concepts, theories, and terminology that themselves enjoyed varying fortunes. Beginning with Haeckel’s Generelle Morphologie der Organismen [General Morphology of Organisms] (1866), this paper traces aspects of the conceptual and terminological evolution that takes place both within the pages of this highly complex but seminal work and then chronologically in later works. We include the use of text data mining of his works to establish and analyze word frequency patterns. We seek to indicate here some of the challenges Haeckel faced in establishing new concepts and terminology in the General Morphology, and we draw attention to his efforts in later works to extend this didactic work.
... He became convinced not only that inheritance and adaptation were the driving forces of the evolutionary process but also that the relationship between embryonic and phyletic development could provide the most important and irrefutable proof of the theory of common descent (Hossfeld et al. 2019). Haeckel described his ideas about the nexus of embryonic and phyletic development using the terms "biogenetic law" and "gastraea law" in 1872 in Monographie der Kalkschwämme, 4 describing the Gastraea as a hypothetical "Urform" (archetype) from which all metazoans have evolved. ...
... We will now look at illustrations themselves-independent from their function of supporting Haeckel's recapitulation theory-to deduce their usefulness in science education. Within the Germany, it has been clear for over a hundred years that Haeckel created these drawings for pedagogical reasons with the intent to illustrate his ideas, and that they are were not drawn directly from observations of embryos, but instead drawn from memory and stylized for pedagogical clarity (Hopwood 2015;Hossfeld et al. 2019;Pennisi 1997). With regard to the accuracy of the embryos, it is clear that embryos of different vertebrate species do appear similar in shape, and later embryological studies have shown that these embryos do differ in size magnitude up to tenfold-a difference that was clearly omitted in Haeckel's original illustrations (Pennisi 1997;Richardson et al. 1997) for pedagogical reasons, as Haeckel explained in the caption of his images (Haeckel 1874;Richards 2008a). ...
... For information on Haeckel's illustrations school books in the German Democratic Republic see "Ernst Haeckel's embryology in biology textbooks in the German DemocraticRepublic, 1951Republic, -1988 in this same special issue(Hossfeld et al. 2019). 3 Although it should be clearly stated that this proliferation came after George John Romanes' (1848-1894) publication Darwin and After Darwin (1892) where he reproduced many of Haeckel's drawings. ...
As Blackwell (Am Biol Teach 69:135–136, 2007) pointed out, multiple authors have attempted to discredit Haeckel, stating that modern embryological studies have shown that Haeckel’s drawings are stylized or embellished. More importantly, though, it has been shown that the discussion within the scientific community concerning Haeckel’s drawings and the question of whether embryonic similarities are convergent or conserved have been extrapolated outside the science community in an attempt to discredit Darwin and evolutionary theory in general (Behe in Science 281:347–351, 1998; Blackwell in Am Biol Teach 69:135–136, 2007; Pickett et al. in Am Biol Teach 67:275, 2005; Wells in Am Biol Teach 61:345–349, 1999; Icons of evolution: science or myth? Why much of what we teach about evolution is wrong. Regnery Publishing, Washington, 2002). In this paper, we address the controversy surrounding Haeckel and his work in order to clarify the line between the shortcomings and the benefits of his research and illustrations. Specifically, we show that while his illustrations were not perfect anatomical representations, they were useful educational visualizations and did serve an important role in furthering studies in embryology.
Phylogenetics emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as a speculative storytelling discipline dedicated to providing narrative explanations for the evolution of taxa and their traits. It coincided with lineage thinking, a process that mentally traces character evolution along lineages of hypothetical ancestors. Ancestors in Evolutionary Biology traces the history of narrative phylogenetics and lineage thinking to the present day, drawing on perspectives from the history of science, philosophy of science, and contemporary scientific debates. It shows how the power of phylogenetic hypotheses to explain evolution resides in the precursor traits of hypothetical ancestors. This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the topic of ancestors, which is central to modern biology, and is therefore of interest to graduate students, researchers, and academics in evolutionary biology, palaeontology, philosophy of science, and the history of science.
Im Jahr 1906 veröffentlichte Arnold Dodel (1843–1908) seine Schrift Ernst Haeckel als Erzieher. Zum Gedenken an den 100. Todestag des Jenaer Zoologen (2019) wurde sie, als Nachdruck und mit Anmerkungen versehen, erneut herausgegeben (Porges et al. 2019). Diese Publikation traf auf ein breites Interesse und war daher schnell vergriffen, zeigt sie doch eine weitere Facette des großen deutschen Biologen von Weltruf, der den Meisten eher als Naturwissenschaftler bekannt ist (Hoßfeld 2010; Levit und Hoßfeld 2019). Spannend liest sich daher Dodels Interpretation und seine Sicht auf Ernst Haeckel als einen Erzieher des ganzen Menschengeschlechts.
Biologiedidaktik ist die Wissenschaft von der Vermittlung biologischen Wissens und biologischer Arbeitsweisen. Auch in der Arbeitsgruppe Biologiedidaktik in Jena werden das Lehren und Lernen biologischer Inhalte erforscht sowie die daraus resultierenden Erkenntnisse als zentrale Komponenten der akademischen Lehramtsausbildung an zukünftige Biologielehrkräfte für Gymnasien und Regelschulen weitergegeben. Um die Qualität und Effektivität der Vermittlung biologischen Wissens zu sichern und zu verbessern, ist Forschung unerlässlich. Erst auf dieser Basis kann eine exzellente akademische Biologielehramtsausbildung erreicht werden. Arbeitsschwerpunkte der Arbeitsgruppe sind beispielsweise Unterrichtsmittel im Biologieunterricht, Science Education, Forschendes Lernen (Mikroskopie, Bionik etc.) sowie außerschulische Lernorte. Deren Einsatz im Unterricht wird dabei auch in der Lehre thematisiert und durch Studierende selbst erprobt. Weitere Arbeitsbereiche bilden die Geschichte des Biologieunterrichts, Biologische Anthropologie, Evolutions- und Entwicklungsbiologie, das Zusammenspiel von Biologie, Religion und Schule sowie die Umstände und Ursachen von Fremdenfeindlichkeit, Rassismus und Antisemitismus, welche auch Teil wissenschaftlicher Qualifikationsarbeiten sind.
