EvoDevo: An Ongoing Revolution?

Abstract

Since its appearance, Evolutionary Developmental Biology (EvoDevo) has been called an emerging research program, a new paradigm, a new interdisciplinary field, or even a revolution. Behind these formulas, there is the awareness that something is changing in biology. EvoDevo is characterized by a variety of accounts and by an expanding theoretical framework. From an epistemological point of view, what is the relationship between EvoDevo and previous biological tradition? Is EvoDevo the carrier of a new message about how to conceive evolution and development? Furthermore, is it necessary to rethink the way we look at both of these processes? EvoDevo represents the attempt to synthesize two logics, that of evolution and that of development, and the way we conceive one affects the other. This synthesis is far from being fulfilled, but an adequate theory of development may represent a further step towards this achievement. In this article, an epistemological analysis of EvoDevo is presented, with particular attention paid to the relations to the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) and the Standard Evolutionary Synthesis (SET).

EvoDevo: Past and Future of Continuum and Process Plant Morphology

“…Ivan Amato [3] in his new PHILOSOPHIES essay tried to answer the following questions: "From an epistemological point of view, what is the relationship between EvoDevo and previous biological tradition? Is EvoDevo the carrier of a new message about how to conceive evolution and development?"…”

“…This essay is written by a plant morphologist and historian of botany. It is a contribution to a special issue in the journal PHILOSOPHIES, edited by Alessandro Minelli on "Renegotiating Disciplinary Fields in the Life Sciences", with another three contributions [2][3][4]. The four PHILOSOPHIES papers demonstrate the need for scientific pluralism in biological disciplines such as evolutionary biology, developmental genetics, and taxonomy.…”