title: Approaches and species in the history of vertebrate embryology.
abstract: Recent debates about model organisms echo far into the past; taking a longer view adds perspective to present concerns. The major approaches in the history of research on vertebrate embryos have tended to exploit different species, though there are long-term continuities too. Early nineteenth-century embryologists worked on surrogates for humans and began to explore the range of vertebrate embryogenesis; late nineteenth-century Darwinists hunted exotic ontogenies; around 1900 experimentalists favored living embryos in which they could easily intervene; reproductive scientists tackled farm animals and human beings; after World War II developmental biologists increasingly engineered species for laboratory life; and proponents of evo-devo have recently challenged the resulting dominance of a few models. Decisions about species have depended on research questions, biological properties, supply lines, and, not least, on methods. Nor are species simply chosen; embryology has transformed them even as they have profoundly shaped the science.
authors.affiliation: Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. ndh12@cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hopwood
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D046508:Culture Techniques / Q000266:history; D004626:Embryology / Q000266:history*; D006653:Histology / Q000266:history; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D010802:Phylogeny; D013045:Species Specificity; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000196:embryology*