Ontogeny (also ontogenesis or morphogenesis) (ontos present participle of 'to be', genesis 'creation') describes the origin and the development of an organism from the fertilized egg to its mature form. Ontogeny is studied in developmental biology, developmental psychology, developmental cognitive neuroscience, and developmental psychobiology. Ontogeny is that branch of life science which deals with the study of origin and development of an organism from fertilized ovum to its mature form. In more general terms, ontogeny is defined as the history of structural change in a unity, which can be a cell, an organism, or a society of organisms, without the loss of the organization that allows that unity to exist (Maturana and Varela, 1987, p. 74).^[1] More recently, the term ontogeny also is used in cell biology to describe the development of various cell types within an organism.

Within biology, ontogeny, pertains to the developmental history of an organism within its own lifetime, as distinct from phylogeny, which refers to the evolutionary history of species. In practice, evolutionary writers often refer to species as 'developing' traits or characteristics. This can be misleading. While developmental or ontogenetic processes can influence subsequent evolutionary or phylogenetic processes^[2] (see evolutionary developmental biology), individual organisms develop (ontogeny), while species evolve (phylogeny).

[edit] See also

Look up ontogeny in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Recapitulation theory, the idea that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
• Important publications in ontogeny

[edit] Notes and References

[edit] External links

v • d • e The development of phenotype Key concepts Genotype-phenotype distinction · Norms of reaction · Gene-environment interaction · Heritability · Quantitative genetics Genetic architecture Dominance relationship · Epistasis · Polygenic inheritance · Pleiotropy · Plasticity · Canalisation · Fitness landscape · Transgressive phenotype Non-genetic influences Epigenetics · Maternal effect · Dual inheritance theory Developmental architecture Segmentation · Modularity Evolution of genetic systems Evolvability · Mutational robustness · Evolution of sex Influential figures C. H. Waddington · Richard Lewontin Debates Nature versus nurture List of evolutionary biology topics

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