The fall and rise of evolutionary developmental biology

In recent years, there has been considerable research activity at the interface between evolutionary biology and developmental biology. This research area has its roots in the nineteenth century, when evolution and embryology were heavily interdependent subjects. Through most of the twentieth century, the two disciplines drifted apart; developmental biology and evolutionary biology now addressed different questions, using different methodologies. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a resurgence of interest in comparative developmental biology, driven primarily by the discovery of developmental genes conserved between Drosophila and vertebrates, a series of technical advances and the rise of molecular phylogenetics. In the 1990s, the field advanced still further, such that it,now embraces a wider range of taxa, interpreted within phylogenetic frameworks. Here I review the history of evolutionary developmental biology and identify a series of milestones that stimulated the recent growth of the discipline.