%0 Journal Article
%T Accounting for Vertebrate Limbs: From OwenĄ¯s Homology to Novelty in Evo-Devo
%A Ingo Brigandt
%J Philosophy & Theory in Biology
%D 2009
%I University of Michigan Libraries
%X This article reviews the recent reissuing of Richard OwenĄ¯s On the Nature of Limbs and its three novel, introductory essays. These essays make OwenĄ¯s 1849 text very accessible by discussing the historical context of his work and explaining how OwenĄ¯s ideas relate to his larger intellectual framework. In addition to the ways in which the essays point to OwenĄ¯s relevance for contemporary biology, I discuss how OwenĄ¯s unity of type theory and his homology claims about fins and limbs compare with modern views. While the phenomena studied by Owen are nowadays of major interest to evolutionary developmental biology, research in evo-devo has largely shifted from homology (which was OwenĄ¯s concern) towards evolutionary novelty, e.g., accounting for fins as a novelty. Still, I argue that questions about homology are important and raise challenges even for explanations of novelty.
%K Richard Owen
%K Morphological Type
%K Homology
%K Vertebrate Limbs
%K Evolutionary Novelty
%U http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.6959004.0001.004