Editing Recapitulation theory (section)

{{Short description|Idea that an animal's developmental stages resemble its evolutionary ancestors}}
{{for|the Christian doctrine|Recapitulation theory of atonement}}
{{evolutionary biology}}
The '''theory of recapitulation''', also called the '''biogenetic law''' or '''embryological parallelism'''—often expressed using [[Ernst Haeckel]]'s phrase  "'''ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny'''"—is a historical hypothesis that the [[embryogenesis|development]] of the [[embryo]] of an animal, from [[fertilization]] to gestation or hatching ([[ontogeny]]), goes through stages resembling or representing successive adult stages in the evolution of the animal's remote ancestors ([[phylogeny]]). It was formulated in the 1820s by  [[Étienne Serres]]  based on the work of [[Johann Friedrich Meckel]], after whom it is also known as the '''Meckel–Serres law'''.

Since [[evolutionary developmental biology|embryos also evolve in different ways]], the shortcomings of the theory had been recognized by the early 20th century, and it had been relegated to "biological mythology"<ref name="Ehrlich1963">{{cite book | last1=Ehrlich | first1=Paul R. |author1-link=Paul R. Ehrlich | last2=Holm | first2=Richard W. | last3=Parnell | first3=Dennis | title=The process of evolution | publisher=McGraw-Hill | publication-place=New York | date=1963 | isbn=0-07-019130-1 | oclc=255345 | page=66 |quote=Its shortcomings have been almost universally pointed out by modern authors, but the idea still has a prominent place in biological mythology.  The resemblance of early vertebrate embryos is readily explained without resort to mysterious forces compelling each individual to reclimb its phylogenetic tree.}}</ref> by the mid-20th century.<ref name="Blechschmidt77">{{cite book | last=Blechschmidt | first=Erich | title=The beginnings of human life | publisher=Springer-Verlag | publication-place=New York | date=1977 | isbn=0-387-90249-X | oclc=3414838 | page=32 |quote=The so-called basic law of biogenetics is wrong. No buts or ifs can mitigate this fact. It is not even a tiny bit correct or correct in a different form, making it valid in a certain percentage. It is totally wrong.}}</ref>

Analogies to recapitulation theory have been formulated in other fields, including [[cognitive development]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Payne |first1=D.G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zpgQAQAAIAAJ |title=Cognitive Psychology |last2=Wenger |first2=M.J. |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-395-68573-0 |series=Instructor's resource manual and test bank |page=352 |quote=Faulty logic and problematic proposals relating the development of an individual to the development of the species turn up even today. The hypothesis that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny has been applied and extended in a number of areas, including cognition and mental activities.}}</ref> and [[music criticism]].