Embryology

Embryology literally means the study of embryos, the immature organisms contained within the coverings of an egg or within the body of the mother. Strictly speaking, the embryonic period ends at metamorphosis, hatching, or birth. After the 1950s, with the DNA structure being discovered by James D. Watson and Francis Crick, and the increasing knowledge in the field of molecular biology, developmental biology emerged as the field of study that correlates the genes and such morphological changes; in other words, which genes are responsible for each morphological change that takes place in an embryo, and how these genes are regulated.

See also

• Ontogeny
• Embryogenesis
• Recapitulation theory
• Neuroembryology

References

• UNSW Embryology Large resource of information and media

Further reading

• Scott F. Gilbert. Developmental Biology. Sinauer, 2003. ISBN 0-87893-258-5.
• Lewis Wolpert. Principles of Development. Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19927-536-X.