Biology and History of Science. The supposed existence of all the parts of an organism in rudimentary form in the egg or the seed (cf. ovism, n.…

The action of Darwinize, v. (in various senses); esp. evolutionary speculation or theorizing in the manner of Erasmus or (later) Charles Darwin…

= theory of evolution n. at evolution, n. 8b.

A theory according to which the human soul is passed from parent to child at conception in a spiritual process distinct from, but allied to, the…

(in general) the proposition that all living organisms have undergone a process of alteration and diversification from simple primordial forms during…

The theory of Charles Darwin concerning the evolution of living organisms over long periods of time principally by the action of natural selection…

The Darwinian theory of evolution by natural selection; = Darwinism, n. 2a. Also: an analogous theory of development through competition in other…

Ethnology. The origin of humankind from a single ancestor or ancestral pair; a hypothesis proposing such an origin. Cf. monogenism, n., monogeny, n.…

Ethnology. The hypothesis or doctrine of the common origin of the human species, esp. from a single pair of ancestors. Cf. monogenesis, n. 2a, mon…

Ethnology. = monogenesis, n. 2a. Now historical.

A theory postulated by Darwin to explain the phenomena of heredity, according to which every constituent unit of an organism reproduced itself by…

Belief in or advocacy of a scientific or philosophical theory of evolution; spec. (a) acceptance of the occurrence of evolutionary change during…

= phylogenesis, n. Also: the pattern of historical relationships between species or other groups resulting from divergence during evolution.

Belief in or advocacy of a polygenetic origin of humankind. Cf. multiregionalism, n. 2.

Biology. The theory of evolution of organic forms: see evolution, n. 8.

The evolutionary development of a species or other group of organisms through a succession of forms. Also: the evolutionary development of a…

Biology. The hypothesis that existing species are the product of the gradual transformation of other forms of living beings (loosely, such…

Biology. Of or relating to recapitulation (recapitulation, n.1 1c). Chiefly in biogenetic law n. the law or theory of recapitulation; cf. biogenesis…

A primitive sac-like animal, whose existence is assumed by Haeckel, consisting of two layers of cells, an ectoderm and an endoderm. gastraea theory…

The belief that adaptations in nature are produced by natural causes operating ‘fortuitously’.

The theory that organic structure is merely the result of an inherent property in matter to adapt itself to circumstances. Obsolete. rare.

In biological and social sciences: the principle of the hereditary transmission of characteristics; esp. = hereditarianism, n.

the (theoretical) origination of animal structures in animal movements.

the doctrine of the origin of species as laid down by Lamarck.

= Lamarckianism n.

= neo-Lamarckism, n.

Ethnology. = monogenesis, n. 2a.

Any of various theories of evolution which seek to retain Lamarck's idea that heritable variation can be caused by environmental influence during the…

Belief in or advocacy of the theory of preformation (preformation, n. 2).

A theory of biological evolution (widely accepted since the 1920s) based on Darwin's theory of natural selection but incorporating the theories of…

The theory of the transmission of inherited characters by germ-plasm, as distinguished from ‘pangenesis’.

= Haeckelism n.

The theory of evolution and heredity propounded by the German biologist, August Weismann, esp. in regard to the continuity of the germ-plasm and…

= preformationism, n.

the opinions and theories of Haeckel.

A theory proposed by the Dutch biologist Hugo de Vries according to which new species arise by abrupt divergence from the parent type as a result…

The quality or state of being directed by a vital force or power as distinguished from the physical forces, spec. as a theory of evolution.

= Mendelism, n.

The fundamental principles of inheritance (especially the laws of segregation and independent assortment and the existence of dominant and…

The theory or belief that genetic factors are much more important than environmental ones in determining personality, intelligence, etc. Cf. enviro…

The view that mutation, rather than natural selection, is the main driving force in evolution; esp. = mutation theory, n.

The belief that evolution proceeds by natural selection; opposed to Lamarckism n.

The name of a theory of evolution first propounded by D. Rosa (in Ologenesi (1918)), and later adopted by G. Montandon (in L'Ologenèse humaine…

Economy of action, effort, or process in an organism or natural system. Now rare.

Mendelian genetics as propounded by T. H. Morgan, incorporating a theory of the gene that is now generally accepted; spec. classical genetics as…

Belief in or advocacy of the views of the Russian agronomist T. D. Lysenko (1898–1976), who opposed modern genetics and advocated neo-Lamarckian…

Biology. A theory of evolution (esp. molecular evolution) holding that most mutations are neutral and become established in populations through…

Biology. Designating or relating to a model of evolution as proceeding by isolated outbursts of rapid speciation between long periods of little or…

the theory that new species arise suddenly as a result of major mutations.

(Belief in or advocacy of) the evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium (punctuated equilibrium at punctuated, adj. 3).

= punctuationism, n.

Biology. A view of evolution that regards the adaptation of an organism to its environment as the principal cause of evolutionary modification; spec.…

The attribution of sole, extreme, or excessive importance to the role of genes or heredity in the causation of disease, behaviour, etc. Cf. genetic d…

Biology. = adaptationism, n. 2.