A brief history of evo-devo

In this first lecture, I present a brief history of this new discipline called "evo-devo", focusing on its historical and epistemological roots. I describe how this rapprochement between evolutionary biology and developmental biology came about during the ^19th and ^20th centuries, and how today's attempts to integrate embryonic development into evolutionary theory are likely to be more successful than previous historical attempts. I also examine the fundamentals of this new discipline and some of its pillars, such as the existence of a restricted genetic toolbox necessary for the construction of the animal body plan, the presence of a small number of intercellular signalling pathways, and the importance of the regulation of genes - rather than their structures - in the evolution of forms. Current examples of these three essential pillars are used to support these points.