Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
#3,504
Most Influential Person
French naturalist who established the principle of "unity of composition"
Why Is Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire Influential?
(Suggest an Edit or Addition)According to Wikipedia, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was a French naturalist who established the principle of "unity of composition". He was a colleague of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and expanded and defended Lamarck's evolutionary theories. Geoffroy's scientific views had a transcendental flavor and were similar to those of German morphologists like Lorenz Oken. He believed in the underlying unity of organismal design, and the possibility of the transmutation of species in time, amassing evidence for his claims through research in comparative anatomy, paleontology, and embryology. He is considered as a predecessor of the evo-devo evolutionary concept.
