VISAYAS STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
VISCA, BAYBAY CITY, LEYTE, 6521 PHILIPPINES

Name: Alastra, Vimson B. Instructor: Ris Menoel Modina

Course & Year: M. Ed-1 Bio Date: February 15, 2020
Schedule: Saturday (1:00-6:00) Score:

AN ARTICLE REVIEW ON THE FLAWOF ERNST HAECKEL

BIOGENETIC LAW

The theory of recapitulation or also known as the biogenetic law of Ernst Haeckel is a theory that
recapitulates the evolution and development of an organism. Ernst Heackel, was a German
zoologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist, and artist who
discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating
all life forms, and coined many terms in biology, including ecology The biogenetic law of
Heackel states that the embryo of a contemporary species goes through the same forms in its
development as its ancestors had in their evolutionary decent. More people carried on his
publication of his theory rather than any other sources including Darwin’s Theory. The
biogenetic law implied that researchers could study evolutionary relationships between taxa by
comparing the developmental stages of embryos for organisms from those taxa. Furthermore, the
evidence from embryology supported the theory that all of species on Earth share a common
ancestor.

Haeckel’s biogenetic law depends on three assumption. He called the first assumption the law of
correspondence, which states that each stage of development in higher animals, such as humans,
corresponds to adult stages of lower animals, such as fish. The second assumption was that
phylogenesis must occur by the addition of new characters to the end of the normal
developmental process. The third assumption was the principle of truncation. Haeckel argued
that if new characters were continuously added to the end of normal ontogeny, the length of
embryonic development would eventually become longer than gestation periods of organisms in
extant species.

Haeckel compared his theory to the theory of Lamarck: the theory of use and disuse that the
organism or species evolved in order to survive. Haeckel also used the concept of truncation to
explain inconsistencies between the stages of animals.
The biogenetic law emphasis on the development of embryo of species on the same taxa.
Because of these similarities on the development of embryo before birth. Haeckel concluded that
the evolution of one species comes from the adult or the older one. With these theory, Haeckel
created the genealogical tree relating the evolution of some species same as Darwin’s Tree of
Life.

Beside of the flaws, Haeckel’s theory serves as the basis for further studies on the evolution of
life.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Haeckel

https://books.google.com.ph/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=dgSC0TLldq8C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=ernst+haeckel&ots=xAcSc4Q01q&sig=i
nxM1N96ewRN0zcuuApVplwKRg0&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=ernst%20haeckel&f=false

https://hpsrepository.asu.edu/handle/10776/7825

http://www.rshu.ru/university/notes/archive/issue47/maket-47el-167-176.pdf

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs12064-019-00276-4.pdf