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Updated: Oct 8, 2025

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin
Published on: August 14, 2018
ONTOGENY AND PHYLOGENETIC SYSTEMATICS
1Museum of Zoology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 48109.
Abstract:
Abstract- Dedifferentiation, paedomorphosis, and the insertion and deletion of developmental stages make it impossible to deduce the genealogical hierarchy from only ontogenetic transformation series. Like the outgroup criterion, ontogenetic character precedence is not theory-neutral and to use it to deduce genealogy requires certain assumptions. If scientists are going to use logically unbeatable theories about the world, they might as well give up natural science and take up religion (Lewontin, 1972: 181).
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