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Epigenesis vs Preformation - What's the difference?

epigenesis | preformation |

As nouns the difference between epigenesis and preformation

is that epigenesis is the theory that an organism develops by differentiation from an unstructured egg rather than by simple enlarging of something preformed while preformation is prior formation.

epigenesis

English

(wikipedia epigenesis)

Noun

(epigeneses)
  • (biology) The theory that an organism develops by differentiation from an unstructured egg rather than by simple enlarging of something preformed.
  • *2011 , Terence Allen and Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction , Oxford 2011, p. 100:
  • *:Ignored for two millennia, Aristotle, in his book On the Generation of Animals , first proposed the theory of epigenesis in biology, suggesting that development of a plant or animal from an egg or spore follows a sequence of steps in which the organism changes and the various organs form.
  • (geology) changes in the mineral content of rock after its formation

    • Related terms

    * epigenetic * epigenetically * epigenesist * epigenist

    preformation

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Prior formation.
  • (biology, historical) The theory that organisms are fully developed in the form of an egg or seed, and just increase in size (as opposed to (epigenesis).
  • *1999 , (Matt Ridley), Genome , Harper Perennial 2004, p. 174:
  • *:Preformation , as even Aristotle spotted, merely postpones the problem, for how did the homunculus get its shape?