Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T08:48:18.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The origin of the vertebrate skeleton

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2010

Stuart Pivar
Stuart Pivar
Affiliation:
Synthetic Life Lab, 15 W. 67th Street, #4MW, New York, NY 10023, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The anatomy of the human and other vertebrates has been well described since the days of Leonardo da Vinci and Vesalius. The causative origin of the configuration of the bones and of their shapes and forms has been addressed over the ensuing centuries by such outstanding investigators as Goethe, Von Baer, Gegenbauer, Wilhelm His and D'Arcy Thompson, who sought to apply mechanical principles to morphogenesis. However, no coherent causative model of morphogenesis has ever been presented.

This paper presents a causative model for the origin of the vertebrate skeleton, based on the premise that the body is a mosaic enlargement of self-organized patterns engrained in the membrane of the egg cell. Drawings illustrate the proposed hypothetical origin of membrane patterning and the changes in the hydrostatic equilibrium of the cytoplasm that cause topographical deformations resulting in the vertebrate body form.

Keywords

embryogenesisgastrulationmorphogenesisphospho-lipid bilayerprimordial germ cellself-organizationsomites
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 45 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gray, H. (1930). Anatomy of the Human Body (22nd Edition), revised and re-edited by Lewis, Warren H.Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia and New York.Google Scholar
Haeckel, E. (1886). The Evolution of Man: A Popular Exposition on the Points of Human Ontogeny and Phylogeny, Vol. I (from the German of Ernst Haeckel). D. Appleton and Company, New York.Google Scholar
His, W. (1874). Unsere Körperform und das physiologische Problem ihrer Entstehung. F.C.W. Vogel, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Jockusch, H. & Dress, A. (2003). Bull. Math. Biol. 65, 57–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauffman, S.A. (1993). The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution. Oxford University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraus, Y.A. (2006). Int. J. Dev. Biol. 50, 267–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oparin, A.I. (1952). The Origin of Life. Dover, New York.Google Scholar
Pivar, S. (2009). On the Origin of Form: Evolution by Self-organization. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA.Google Scholar
Starodubov, S.M., Doronin, Yu.K., Golichenkov, V. A. (2008) Doklady Biological Sciences 421(1), 251–.253CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starodubov, S.M. & Golychenkov, V.A. (2009). Int. J. Dev. Biol. 53, 135–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiner, R. (1988). Goethean Science (translated by Lindeman, W.). Mercury Press, Spring Valley, New York.Google Scholar
Thompson, D.W. (1917). On Growth and Form. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar