Turtle Genome
Embryology plays a critical role in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The “leading facts in embryology … [were] second to none in importance,” he argued in The Origin of Species.
Illustrations of embryos by Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist, influenced Darwin. Haeckel’s drawings depict embryos repeating the steps of evolution, a concept known as the “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” theory.
It is believed that genes drive evolution through the process of natural selection. Since turtles have a unique body plan, studying the turtle genome during embryonic development is expected to give insight into their origin.
