Abstract
A central reason that undergirds the significance of evo-devo is the claim that development was left out of the Modern synthesis. This claim turns out to be quite complicated, both in terms of whether development was genuinely excluded and how to understand the different kinds of embryological research that might have contributed. The present paper reevaluates this central claim by focusing on the practice of model organism choice. Through a survey of examples utilized in the literature of the Modern synthesis, I identify a previously overlooked feature: exclusion of research on marine invertebrates. Understanding the import of this pattern requires interpreting it in terms of two epistemic values operating in biological research: theoretical generality and explanatory completeness. In tandem, these values clarify and enhance the significance of this exclusion. The absence of marine invertebrates implied both a lack of generality in the resulting theory and a lack of completeness with respect to particular evolutionary problems, such as evolvability and the origin of novelty. These problems were salient to embryological researchers aware of the variation and diversity of larval forms in marine invertebrates. In closing, I apply this analysis to model organism choice in evo-devo and discuss its relevance for an extended evolutionary synthesis.
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Notes
This worry can be extended to various claims made about participation in the Modern synthesis that are not necessarily related to embryology (cf. Borrello 2009).
There is no pretense that this survey of monographs is exhaustive. The rationale for including these authors is treated below in “Discussion”.
Letter from Mayr to Newell (10 January 1947), quoted in Cain (2000), p. 238.
In an intriguing transnational parallel, Simpson often cites the work of Schindewolf on marine invertebrates, although their interaction is largely antagonistic (cf. Simpson 1949).
These patterns also reinforce the need to distinguish between comparative and experimental embryology when evaluating exclusions from the Modern Synthesis (Love and Raff 2003) because de Beer and Waddington exhibit such dramatically different styles in their use of model organisms.
Non-epistemic values, such as the likelihood of securing funding, are also important but ignored here. The complex relationship between the multitude of epistemic and non-epistemic values operating in science is discussed extensively elsewhere (e.g., Kincaid et al. 2007).
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the critical suggestions and feedback provided by Mark Borrello, Ingo Brigandt, Tim Horder, Lennart Olsson, Anya Plutynski, Rudy Raff, and an anonymous reviewer on an earlier version of this paper. Thanks are also due to George Levit and Lennart Olsson for their editorial patience.
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Love, A.C. Marine invertebrates, model organisms, and the modern synthesis: epistemic values, evo-devo, and exclusion. Theory Biosci. 128, 19–42 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-009-0063-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-009-0063-2