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Eric Davidson and deep time

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Abstract

Eric Davidson had a deep and abiding interest in the role developmental mechanisms played in generating evolutionary patterns documented in deep time, from the origin of the euechinoids to the processes responsible for the morphological architectures of major animal clades. Although not an evolutionary biologist, Davidson’s interests long preceded the current excitement over comparative evolutionary developmental biology. Here I discuss three aspects at the intersection between his research and evolutionary patterns in deep time: First, understanding the mechanisms of body plan formation, particularly those associated with the early diversification of major metazoan clades. Second, a critique of early claims about ancestral metazoans based on the discoveries of highly conserved genes across bilaterian animals. Third, Davidson’s own involvement in paleontology through a collaborative study of the fossil embryos from the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation in south China.

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Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at a workshop on “From Genome to Gene” at the Jacques Loeb Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in November 2015, and at a memorial symposium for Eric Davidson at Caltech in April 2016. I appreciate the invitation to contribute this paper from Ute Deichmann and Michel Morange. This paper incorporates research funded by the NASA National Astrobiology Institute.

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  1. Department of Paleobiology, MRC-121, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, 20013-7012, USA

    Douglas H. Erwin

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Correspondence to Douglas H. Erwin.

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Erwin, D.H. Eric Davidson and deep time. HPLS 39, 29 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-017-0156-z

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