Segmentation

Definition and stakes

Portrait of D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson,  On Growth and Form

“ But now that we have seen how a certain limited number of types of eight-celled segmentation (or of arrangements of eight cell-partitions) appear and reappear, here and there, throughout the whole world of organisms, there still remains the very important question, whether in each particular organism the conditions are such as to lead to one particular arrangement being predominant, char­ac­ter­is­tic, or even invariable. ”
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of William Bateson William Bateson,  Problems of Genetics

“ If therefore it be conceded, as I think it must, that segmentation and pattern are the consequence of a periodic process we realize that it is at least as easy to imagine the formation of such a series of parts having family likeness combined with differentiation as it would be to conceive of their arising primordially as a series of identical repetitions. The suggestion that the likenesses which we now perceive are the remains of a still more complete resemblance is a substitution of a more complex conception for a simpler one. ”
Source: Gutenberg

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