Metamorphosis: A Natural and Human History

by Oren Harman

A lyrical search for the meaning of one of biology’s toughest Why do so many creatures transform?

“How many creatures walking on this earth / Have their first being in another form?” the Roman poet Ovid asked two thousand years ago. He could not have known the full extent of the Today, biologists estimate a stunning three-quarters of all animal species on earth undergo some form of metamorphosis. 
 
But why do tadpoles transform into frogs, caterpillars into butterflies, elvers into eels, immortal jellyfish from sea sprigs to medusae and back again, growing younger and younger in frigid ocean depths? Why must creatures go through massive destruction and remodeling to become who they are? Tracing a path from Aristotle—who rejected the possibility of metamorphosis —to Darwin to today, historian of science Oren Harman explores that central mystery.    
 
Metamorphosis, however, isn’t just a biological It takes us to the very heart of questions of being and identity, whatever kind of change we may undergo. Metamorphosis is a new classic of natural a book that, by unveiling a mystery of nature, causes us to relearn ourselves.   
 

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Natural History

400 pages, Hardcover

Published October 14, 2025

About the author

Oren Harman, who has a doctorate from Oxford University, is the Chair of the Graduate Program in Science Technology and Society at Bar Ilan University and a professor of the history of science. He is the author of The Man Who Invented the Chromosome, a documentary film maker, and a frequent contributor to The New Republic. He lives in Tel Aviv and New York.

Reviews

[Tala🦈 (mrs.skywalker.reads) · Rating 2 out of 5]

miał być wielki esej o przemianie, wyszła notatka z wykładu, który wymknął się prowadzącemu spod kontroli (a razem z nim jego ego)

Harman ma momenty naprawdę ciekawe – biologia owadów, aksolotle, meduzy, radiolarie – tylko że wszystko to ginie w natłoku nazwisk, dygresji i prywatnych wtrętów o dzieciach. im dalej, tym bardziej widać, że temat „metamorfozy” to pretekst, nie oś. Harman wrzuca wszystko: Arystotelesa, Nabokova, Rumiego, własne wspomnienia i filozofię Spinozy, licząc, że temat „metamorfozy” sam to połączy; spoiler — nie łączy

do tego zero refleksji nad kolonializmem i innymi problemami epok („wtedy wszyscy tacy byli”), zachodniocentryczne podejście, fascynacja postaciami pokroju Katarzyny Wielkiej czy Haeckla bez żadnego krytycyzmu, żadnych rozważań o władzy, przemocy, Izraelu i kontekście, w którym Harman sam funkcjonuje, ignorowanie różnorodności płciowej i seksualnej w naturze

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating dive into metamorphosis. I did enjoy the authors writing style, even though it jumps all over the place. As a biologist I appreciated the coverage of the less charismatic fauna- insects, amphibians and marine organisms.
I really appreciated the sections on Maria Sibylla Merian’s life and work as I feel she is an under represented scientist in the entomology and scientific illustration world. This alone bumped the books rating up for me.
What really bumped it down was the incomplete picture of Haeckel that was described. He was racist and truly did set the ground work for evolutionary eugenics that followed in Nazi Germany. I feel like the author glazed over this topic and even made excuses for him saying that he placed Jews and white Germans at similar ranks in his species trees. This does not acknowledge that he expressed and advocated for eugenic beliefs.

Overall this book was a worthwhile read, and reminded me of topics I hadn’t thought about in years. Big thanks to Net Galley, Oren Harman, and Basic books publishing for the digital advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

[Gillian Sutliff]

Read for work. Also no rating. Great art program/ topic and this author is very nice

[Rick Elinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to see the title “Metamorphosis”, since I had worked on metamorphosis as a biologist before I retired. I was intrigued that one third of the book was centered on Ernst Haeckel, the famous German biologist, thinker, and artist of the late 19 th century. I knew Haeckel’s work well and had published on its impact. I was further intrigued that one third of the book was centered on Maria Sibylla Merian, the brilliant Dutch natural historian and artist of the 17th century. She published a beautiful book on metamorphosis of Surinam butterflies that I have dreamed of owning. Unfortunately, I became more and more disappointed with Harman’s effort. The book seemed like a collage of stories, some of which were disjointed and had pieces missing. Many of the stories were unrelated to metamorphosis.

Haeckel’s far-ranging work and his popularization of it does not deal with metamorphosis. Its core is captured by the phrase “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”, i.e. the evolutionary history of an animal is reflected in its embryonic development. Why was Haeckel a focus of Harman’s book? Haeckel’s work raised controversies when it was published, and those controversies were revisited by Richardson in 1997 (p. 175). Many authors countered Richardson’s criticisms, but Harman only brings that side up in a section called “Sources”, which is not part of the main text (pp. 337-341).

This disjunction illustrates other problems with Harman’s hodge-podge presentation. Harman brings up the famous Spemann - Mangold organizer experiments of 1924. These are very important for embryology but irrelevant to metamorphosis. If you are going to bring them up, why not give the modern molecular explanations provided by DeRobertis, Harland and others? Harman devotes a chapter to Williamson’s work (pp. 248-258), which almost no one took seriously. Why was this chapter included?

In contrast to all of the material irrelevant to metamorphosis (Haeckel, Spemann, Williamson), Harman spends little time on amphibian metamorphosis, focusing instead on insect metamorphosis. Amphibians are much closer phylogenetically to us. We share body plans: vertebral column, skeleton, closed circulatory system, four limbs.

Harman spends a lot of effort on the work of Lynn Riddiford and Jim Truman on insect metamorphosis. That’s fine, but he uses it to ponder “self”. With complete metamorphosis, there are two organisms: the larva which is destroyed during metamorphosis and the adult. Which one can be considered “self”? Is this question relevant to humans? Is who we are when we are three years old the same as who are at 40 years old? Do we undergo a metamorphosis? This pondering is Harman’s concern, but neither Riddiford nor Truman, his highlighted 20th century biologists, see any relevancy to this line of thought (pp. 247, 291).

This mixture of relevant and irrelevant material indicates that a much stronger editorial hand was required. In addition, there are a couple of errors in areas that I am most familiar with. First, the salamander eggs that Spemann and Mangold used are called “transparent” (p. 219). They are not, and that word is contradicted in mentioning pigmentation two pages later (p. 221). Second, the coqui frog that skips the tadpole stage is from Puerto Rico, not Costa Rica (p. 274). Indeed, the coqui is a national symbol of Puerto Rico. In addition to more editorial oversight, there should have been more fact-checking.

My criticism of this book may be due to my disappointment from the expectations implied from the title and the major themes.

[Taveri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a hodge podge read.  I didn't care for the prose style of jumping around while conveying a story. Based on the cover and title I thought it was going to be about butterflies but it flitted about in its narrative of personal background, scientists experiences and what they discovered.

For a while i thought the structure of the book was meant to show the metaphoses of individuals' thinking and science in general and the three parts of the book were an analogy to larvae > pupae > adult stages but that's more likely my imagination.


I did learn a couple of things, like jelly fish go through eight stages, and i enjoyed two of the chapters > so two stars instead of one.

[Yael Barash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Metamorphosis left me both awed and comforted. It’s a book about change — in animals, in humans, in life itself — and somehow it makes you feel that transformation is not something to fear but a natural, almost obvious path. That even when we think we’re standing still, we’re actually changing, shedding, becoming the next version of ourselves. The book holds a rare mix of science and art, ,music, and history. it lingers long after you finish it. very very good read... Fully recomended

[Oren Harman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece, blending superb science writing, philosophy and history. The connections Harman makes between biological metamorphosis and our human preoccupation in art and culture with the theme of change and transformation are striking and original. One of the best books of the year. Highly recommended

[Yeezy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It portrays a group of scientists, but incorporates a lot of material, making it a book with a high density of thought. The part that combines biological metamorphosis and immortality is particularly fascinating.

[Audacia Ray]

An extremely heterosexual book about a very queer subject.