Serial homology is a special type of
homology, defined by Owen as "representative or repetitive relation in the segments of the same organism."
[R:Webster 1913 in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913] Ernst Haeckel preferred the term "homotypy" for the same phenomenon.
Classical examples of serial homologies are the development of forelimbs and hind limbs of
tetrapod
Tetrapods (; ) are four-limb (anatomy), limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant taxon, extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids (reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids (p ...
s and the iterative structure of the
vertebrae
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...
.
See also
*
Deep homology
*
Evolutionary developmental biology
Evolutionary developmental biology (informally, evo-devo) is a field of biological research that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to infer how developmental processes evolved.
The field grew from 19th-century beginn ...
References
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Evolutionary biology
Comparative anatomy