Editing Recapitulation theory (section)

===Meckel, Serres, Geoffroy===

The idea of recapitulation was first formulated in [[biology]] from the 1790s onwards by the German [[natural philosopher]]s [[Johann Friedrich Meckel]] and [[Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer]], and by [[Étienne Serres]]<ref name="Mayr94">{{harvnb|Mayr|1994}}</ref> after which, [[Marcel Danesi]] states, it soon gained the status of a supposed [[biogenetic]] law.<ref name="Danesi93p65">{{Harv|Danesi|1993|p=65}}</ref>

The embryological theory was formalised by Serres in 1824–1826, based on Meckel's work, in what became known as the "Meckel-Serres Law". This attempted to link [[comparative embryology]] with a "pattern of unification" in the organic world. It was supported by [[Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire]], and became a prominent part of his ideas. It suggested that past transformations of life could have been through environmental causes working on the embryo, rather than on the adult as in [[Lamarckism]]. These [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalistic]] ideas led to disagreements with [[Georges Cuvier]]. The theory was widely supported in the Edinburgh and London schools of higher anatomy around 1830, notably by [[Robert Edmond Grant]], but was opposed by [[Karl Ernst von Baer]]'s [[von Baer's laws (embryology)|ideas of divergence]], and attacked by [[Richard Owen]] in the 1830s.<ref>{{harvnb|Desmond|1989|pp=52–53, 86–88, 337–340}}</ref>

[[File:Haeckel drawings.jpg|thumb|350px|[[George Romanes]]'s 1892 copy of [[Ernst Haeckel]]'s controversial [[embryo drawing]]s{{efn|George Romanes's 1892 version of the figure is often attributed incorrectly to Haeckel.}}<ref>{{cite journal | last1=RICHARDSON | first1=MICHAEL K. | last2=KEUCK | first2=GERHARD | title=Haeckel's ABC of evolution and development | journal=Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society | publisher=Wiley | volume=77 | issue=4 | year=2002 | issn=1464-7931 | doi=10.1017/s1464793102005948 | pages=495–528| pmid=12475051 | s2cid=23494485 }}</ref>]]