Editing Evolutionary developmental biology (section)

===Early theories===
{{Further|Aristotle's biology}}

Philosophers began to think about how animals acquired form in the [[womb]] in [[classical antiquity]]. [[Aristotle]] asserts in his ''[[Physics (Aristotle)|Physics]]'' treatise that according to [[Empedocles]], order "spontaneously" appears in the developing embryo. In his ''[[The Parts of Animals]]'' treatise, he argues that Empedocles' theory was wrong. In Aristotle's account, Empedocles stated that the [[vertebral column]] is divided into vertebrae because, as it happens, the embryo twists about and snaps the column into pieces. Aristotle argues instead that the process has a predefined goal: that the "seed" that develops into the embryo began with an inbuilt "potential" to become specific body parts, such as vertebrae. Further, each sort of animal gives rise to animals of its own kind: humans only have human babies.<ref name="Leroi 2014">{{Cite book |last=Leroi |first=Armand Marie |author-link=Armand Marie Leroi |title=The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science |title-link=Aristotle's Lagoon |date=2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-1-4088-3622-4 |pages=181–182}}</ref>