Morphoevodevo A Multilevel Approach To Elucidate The Evolution Of Metazoan Organ Systems

Download or read book MorphoEvoDevo: A Multilevel Approach to Elucidate the Evolution of Metazoan Organ Systems written by and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzing animal development in a comparative framework provides a unique window into evolutionary history. With a long tradition that dates back to iconic 19th-century zoologists such as Ernst Haeckel and Charles Darwin, Evolutionary Developmental Biology is firmly rooted in morphological research. While studies using a classical model system approach have resulted in considerable methodological progress, in particular by establishing molecular genetic tools to tackle questions surrounding animal development, it quickly became obvious that a broad comparative dataset involving as many taxa as possible is necessary for sound evolutionary inferences. Thus, today’s EvoDevo embraces morphological, molecular, and experimental procedures, interpreted in a phylogenetic framework, in order to answer key questions that revolve around the evolution of animal cell types, organ systems, and, ultimately, entire species.