GREAT MYTHS OF EVOLUTION # 2

by David Menton

ONTOGENY RECAPITULATES PHYLOGENY

Students of biology who have gone to the trouble to memorize this

impressive sounding phrase will be disheartened to learn that it has

been known to be untrue since it was first proposed as "fact" by Ernst

Haeckel nearly 100 years ago!

The recapitulation myth, better known as

the biogenetic "law", claims that each embryo in its development passes

through abreviated stages that resemble developmental stages of its

evolutionary ancestors.

The fictitious "gill slits" of human embryos

discussed in Myth # 1, for example, are supposed to represent the

"fish" or "amphibian" stage of man's evolutionary ancestors. Most

professional evolutionists no longer believe this myth. The famous

evolutionist Dr. Paul Ehrlich, for example, said: "this interpretation

of embryological sequences will not stand close examination. Its'

shortcomings have been almost universally pointed out by modern

authors, but the idea still has a prominent place in biological

mythology." ('The Process of Evolution' 1963, p.66).

In his book 'The

Beginnings of Life' (1977, p. 32), embryologist Dr. E. Blechschmidt

reveals some of his frustration with the persistence of this myth: "The

so-called basic law of biogenetics is wrong. No buts or ifs can

mitigate this fact. It is not even a tiny bit correct or correct in a

different form. It is totally wrong." Yet in a recent (1980) survey of

15 high school biology text books, 9 offered embryological

recapitulation as evidence for evolution!