Evolutionary Developmental Biology

Evolutionary developmental biology, or evo-devo, is the study of the reciprocal relationships between ontogenetic development and evolutionary processes. This still relatively new research field, of roughly four decades, is highly heterogeneous and based on a variety of different approaches and interpretations of evo-devo as a research field. Broadly conceived forms of evo-devo, in which nearly every comparative-embryological or developmental-genetic approach is presumed to have evolutionary significance, intersect with more specialized practices that are characterized by the explicit evolutionary questions they attempt to answer. In this bibliographic survey we focus on the latter. These works explore an interconnected set of two principal scientific problems: How do the mechanisms of individual development evolve, and how do the properties of developmental systems that characterize organismal lineages influence their further evolution? Within each of these larger areas, a host of more detailed questions can be defined, and, in pursuing them, evo-devo addresses many empirical and conceptual issues that pertain to the emergence of complex phenotypes as well as the evolving interactions of development with population-level processes and the environment. The theoretical consequences of these kinds of investigations have a significant impact on how organismal evolution is conceptualized today. Thus, the publications listed herein were chosen for their specific evo-devo content and their capacity to bridge the empirical and theoretical dimensions. Recent works are favored, but foundational classics of individual subject areas are also cited. Besides the general parts, our survey contains sixteen thematic sections that cover the most important areas of evo-devo research. For each of these sections, we were permitted to list up to ten publications. Of course, this cannot do justice to all the excellent work in the field. Therefore, we attempted to highlight publications that are representative of the selected areas and address crucial conceptual aspects. Since even this criterion is a highly subjective one, we ask all those whose work could not be included for their understanding. In addition to providing an introduction to the characteristic themes of evo-devo, we have aimed for a suitability of this survey as a comprehensive resource for the teaching of evo-devo to advanced undergraduate and graduate students.