Embryos and Haeckel

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Embryos and Haeckel
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Most textbooks present pictures of embryos as
proof of Macro Evolution
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Professor Ernst Haeckel, University of Jena in
Germany, produced a series of drawings of
embryonic development in 1866 which greatly
influenced Darwin and have been widely accepted
as a proof of macro evolution
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Haeckels Embryos
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Haeckel Presented The Idea That The Similarity in
Appearance AND The Folds Under The Head Indicated
That All Organisms Progressed Through Their
Ancestral Forms During Their Development
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Folds on Haeckels Embryos
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Haeckel Proposed That The Folds Under The Head
In The Human Embryo Meant That At This Stage of
Development The Human Had Rudimentary Gills.
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In The Human The Folds Develop Into The Thymus
Gland, Parathyroid Gland, Middle Ear and Tonsils.
These Structures Have No Relationship To Gills.
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Notice the great differences in the developmental
stages of the embryos before reaching the stage
shown by Haeckel.
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Haeckel doctored the drawings to make them all
appear closely related. Had he shown the stages
leading up to the stage before the one he
published, the error would have been clear.
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Haeckels drawings were first publicized as fraud
two years, 1868, after he published them. The
University of Jena asked him to justify his
results in 1874. He admitted to some
falsifications although his written
acknowledgment of this is reported to be lost.
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Think CriticallyWhat Kind of Evolution Do
Vertebrate Embryos Support?
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