At the beginning of the twentieth century Haeckel’s biogenetic law was widely questioned. On the one hand, there were those who wanted to dismiss it altogether: ontogeny and phylogeny did not have any systematic or interesting relation. On the other hand, there were those who sought to revise it. They argued that while Haeckel’s recapitulationism might have been erroneous, this should not deter the research over the relation between evolution and development. The British embryologist Walter Garstang was one of the main figures on the “revisionists” side. In this paper, I first situate Garstang’s contribution to embryology and evolution within the extraordinarily creative period of the first three decades of the twentieth century. Then, I review some of Garstang’s specific ideas in detail, especially his most well-known 1922 paper “The Theory of Recapitulation.” Finally, I look at how the demise of the biogenetic law in light of Garstang’s views—as well as from the perspective of contemporary developmental evolution—should be understood. My main concern is not about the dismissal of Haeckel’s law or the sidelining of embryology in the twentieth-century evolutionary biology. I am rather interested in exploring why Garstang’s revised version of biogenetic law—which was entirely consistent with the neo-Darwinian perspective underpinning the Modern synthesis—did not spur a major new agenda in evolutionary biology after the 1930s.

中文翻译：

---

超越海克尔定律：Walter Garstang 和可能存在的进化生物学

二十世纪初，海克尔的生物遗传规律受到广泛质疑。一方面，有人想完全驳回它：个体发育和系统发育没有任何系统或有趣的关系。另一方面，也有人试图修改它。他们争辩说，虽然海克尔的重述主义可能是错误的，但这不应阻止对进化与发展之间关系的研究。英国胚胎学家 Walter Garstang 是“修正主义者”一方的主要人物之一。在这篇论文中，我首先将 Garstang 对胚胎学和进化的贡献置于 20 世纪头三年的非凡创造性时期。然后，我详细回顾了 Garstang 的一些具体想法，尤其是他最著名的 1922 年论文“重演理论”。最后，我根据 Garstang 的观点以及从当代发展进化的角度来看，应该如何理解生物发生法则的消亡。我主要关心的不是海克尔定律的驳回或 20 世纪进化生物学中胚胎学的边缘化。我更感兴趣的是探索为什么 Garstang 修订版的生物遗传定律——完全符合支持现代综合的新达尔文主义观点——没有在 1930 年代之后刺激进化生物学的一个主要新议程。我主要关心的不是海克尔定律的驳回或 20 世纪进化生物学中胚胎学的边缘化。我更感兴趣的是探索为什么 Garstang 修订版的生物遗传定律——完全符合支持现代综合的新达尔文主义观点——没有在 1930 年代之后刺激进化生物学的一个主要新议程。我主要关心的不是海克尔定律的驳回或 20 世纪进化生物学中胚胎学的边缘化。我更感兴趣的是探索为什么 Garstang 修订版的生物遗传定律——完全符合支持现代综合的新达尔文主义观点——没有在 1930 年代之后刺激进化生物学的一个主要新议程。