evolutionary developmental biology evo devo refers to the study of developmental programs and patterns from an evolutionary perspective it seeks to understand the various influences shaping the form and nature of life on the planet evo devo arose as a separate branch of science only in the last decade most of the synthesis in evo devo has been in the field of animal evolution one reason being the presence of elegant model systems like drosophila c elegans zebrafish and xenopus however in the past couple of decades a wealth of information on plant morphology coupled with modern molecular techniques has helped shed light on the conserved and unique developmental patterns in the plant kingdom also