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A Historical Consideration of the Siphonophores
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2011
Extract
In his report of the Challenger siphonophores Ernst Haeckel sketches a picture of biological debate and solution calculated to excite historians and philosophers of biology. Here is a distinct zoological issue, Haeckel suggests, to which Darwin's theory of evalution both gives new meaning and offers a solution. Only an evolutionist, Haeckel implies, could see the flaws in previous ideas and wield the powerful tool of embryology to uncover the truth. It sounds as if the siphonophores can provide what has long been wanted, a nice case-study of the impact of Darwinism upon classical zoology, that is, upon comparative anatomy, morphology and classification.
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- Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1972
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