Morphogenesis and Evolution

by Keith S. Thomson

Today developmental and evolutionary biologists are focussing renewed attention on the developmental process--those genetic and cellular factors that influence variation in individual body shape or metabolism--in an attempt to better understand how evolutionary trends and patterns within individuals might be limited and controlled. In this important work, the author reviews the classical literature on embryology, morphogenesis, and paleontology, and presents recent genetic and molecular studies on development. The result is a unique perspective on a set of problems of fundamental importance to developmental and evolutionary biologists.

"An admirable job. . . .examines current concepts of morphogenesis, including pattern formation in limbs of control animals as well as mutants such as eudiplopodia, luxate, brachypod, and nanomely. His discussion of Waddington's 'canalized landscape' metaphor. . . is particularly cogent. . . .The bibliography, index, and references are complete, current, and comprehensive. Should be purchased by academic libraries as a thorough interdisciplinary discussion of an intensely interesting and emerging area." --Choice

"Views the regular appearance of morphological gaps as a phenomenon worthy of a causal explanation which goes beyond the negative evidence of the incompleteness of the fossil record. I believe that this message deserves a wide audience among all those readers interested in the modern expansion of evolutionary theory." --American Scientist

"Represents a serious attempt to grapple with the overall problem of the role of developmental mechanisms in evolution. It is a tightly condensed discourse on an extremelycomplicated topic, and it is well worth reading." --BioScience

"Thomson's presentation is often circumspect and above all lucid. He integrates classical ideas from morphology and paleontology with recent work in experimental embryology and, to a lesser extent, molecular genetics . . . . This concise introduction to the potential role of ontogeny in evolution deserves to be widely read." --Quarterly Review of Biology

"[The author] shows an elegant style of explanation . . . . He clearly gives the evolutionary biologist pertinent developmental data in a form that can be easily understood." --American Zoologist

163 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1988

About the author

Keith Thomson is Executive Officer of the American Philosophical Society and Professor Emeritus of Natural History, University of Oxford.

Modified from an interview with Greg Ross in “American Scientist”
I have had a wonderful career as a professor of biology and dean (at Yale), a museum director (Yale, Philadelphia, and Oxford), and more recently as an author. I started out as a biologist interested in the evolution of fishes and the origin of major features in the transition between fishes and tetrapods. That inevitably drew me both to paleontology and to study of the “living fossil” lungfishes and the extraordinary living coelacanth. In 1966 I obtained for study the first fresh specimen of the coelacanth from the Comoro Islands (Living Fossil, Norton, 1991). My overall goal was to understand fossils in the same physiological, biomechanical, and ecological terms as we study living animals. In the process I have published on subjects ranging from the evolution of cell size and DNA content in lungfish, and intracranial mechanics in the coelacanth and its fossil relatives, to the origin of the tetrapod middle ear and the body shape and swimming mechanics of sharks. From an early interest in embryology, it was but a short step also to what is now called (rather unhappily) “evo-devo,” or the study of the roles that developmental processes play in evolution, and to writing Morphogenesis and Evolution (Oxford University Press, 1988).

After having been supported by NSF continuously for some 20 years, I cheerfully stepped off the grant treadmill, and in recent years I have had immense pleasure in studying the history of science and in writing for a popular audience, starting with the column Marginalia in American Scientist that I have written for thirty years. My current interests range from Thomas Jefferson and 18th-century science to Charles Darwin. Recent books include Treasures on Earth (Faber and Faber, 2002), Before Darwin (Yale University Press, 2005), Fossils: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2005), The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America (Yale University Press, 2008), A Passion for Nature: Thomas Jefferson and Natural History (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2008) and The Young Charles Darwin (Yale University Press, 2009). Jefferson’s Shadow: the Story of his Science (Yale University Press, 2012) was the culmination of several years of work as a visiting fellow at the International Centre for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. Due in 2015 is Private Doubt, Public Dilemma (Yale University Press) based on my Terry Lectures at Yale in 2012.
http://keithsthomson.com/index.html