Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Law of recapitulation --> recapitulation theory

The theory formulated by E.H. Haeckel that individuals in their embryonic development pass through stages similar in general structural plan to the stages their species passed through in its evolution; more technically phrased, the theory that ontogeny is an abbreviated recapitulation of phylogeny.

Synonym: biogenetic law, law of biogenesis, haeckels law, law of recapitulation.