HAECKEL'S EMBRYOS

Pictures from the past powerfully shape current views of the world. In books, television programs, and websites, new images appear a longside others that have survived from decades ago. Among the most famous are drawings of embryos by the Darwinist Ernst Haeckel in which humans and other vertebrates begin identical, then diverge toward their adult forms. But these icons of evolution are notorio us, too: within months of their publication in 1868, a colleague alleged fraud, and Haeckel's many enemies have repeated the charge ever sinc...[Read more]