A SET of 19th-century drawings that still appear in reference books such
as Gray鈥檚 Anatomy are badly misdrawn, says an embryologist in
Britain.
German naturalist Ernst Haeckel published the drawings 123 years ago in
support of his famous dictum 鈥渙ntogeny recapitulates phylogeny鈥�. They appear to
demonstrate that the young embryos of fish, birds and humans look nearly the
same. 鈥淗e鈥檚 shown the similarity, but he hasn鈥檛 shown the differences,鈥� says
Michael Richardson of St George鈥檚 Hospital Medical School in London.
Richardson and his colleagues compared the embryos of 50 vertebrates to
Haeckel鈥檚 drawings. They say in Anatomy and Embryology (vol 196, p 91)
that Haeckel left out some features, such as the budding limbs that some embryos
have, while adding others, such as an excess of vertebra-like 鈥渟omites鈥�.
Advertisement
Although Haeckel confessed to drawing from memory and was convicted of fraud
at the University of Jena, the drawings persist. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the real mystery,鈥� says
Richardson.