 the theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism&mdash; often expressed in ernst haeckel's phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"&mdash;is a largely discredited biological hypothesis that in developing from embryo to adult, animals go through stages resembling or representing successive stages in the evolution of their remote ancestors. while examples of embryonic stages show that molecular features of ancestral organisms exist, the theory of recapitulation itself has been viewed within the field of developmental biology as a historical side-note rather than as dogma.blechschmidt, erich (1977) the beginnings of human life. springer-verlag inc., pg. 32: "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."ehrlich, paul; richard holm; dennis parnell (1963) the process of evolution. new york: mcgrawâhill, pg. 66: "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." with different formulations, such ideas have been applied and extended to several fields and areas, including the origin of language, religion, biology, cognition and mental activities,david g. payne, michael j. wenger (1998) cognitive psychology p.352 quotation:  anthropology,carneiro, (1981) robert l. herbert spencer as an anthropologist journal of libertarian studies, vol. 5, 1981, pp.&nbsp;156â60 education theory and developmental psychology.paul thagard (1992) conceptual revolutions p.259recapitulation theory is still considered plausible and is applied by some researchers in fields such as the study of the origin of language,danesi (1993) p.6 quotation: {{quotation|"...the premise that was inherent in it â that language ontogenesis reenacts language phylogenesis in a chronologically condensed way â is, arguably, a plausible one. traditional glottogenetic theories have been implicitly shaped by it; and several current scientific approaches have adopted it as a wor
Biology_theories History_of_evolutionary_biology Obsolete_scientific_theories