On the Nature of Limbs: A Discourse - Softcover

Owen, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226641937 ISBN 13: 9780226641935

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2008

Synopsis

The most prominent naturalist in Britain before Charles Darwin, Richard Owen made empirical discoveries and offered theoretical innovations that were crucial to the proof of evolution. Among his many lasting contributions to science was the first clear definition of the term homology—“the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function.” He also graphically demonstrated that all vertebrate species were built on the same skeletal plan and devised the vertebrate archetype as a representation of the simplest common form of all vertebrates.

Just as Darwin’s ideas continue to propel the modern study of adaptation, so too will Owen’s contributions fuel the new interest in homology, organic form, and evolutionary developmental biology. His theory of the archetype and his views on species origins were first offered to the general public in On the Nature of Limbs, published in 1849. It reemerges here in a facsimile edition with introductory essays by prominent historians, philosophers, and practitioners from the modern evo-devo community.

About this title

About the Authors

Ron Amundson is professor of philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.


Brian K. Hall is University Research Professor at Dalhousie University and fellow of the Centre for Human Biology at the University of Western Australia and the editor of the three-volume series The Skull, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Mary P. Winsor is associate professor at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Victoria College, University of Toronto. She is the author of Starfish, Jellyfish, and the Order of Life: Issues in Nineteenth-Century Science.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226641937
• ISBN 13: 9780226641935
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 119
• Editor: Amundson Ronald