Page 141 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences

The NAS's Misconceptions About Embryology

five vertebrate classes given as examples by Haeckel (bony fish, am-
phibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) shows that this is not the
case.
The differences between the five classes are clear, even in the fer-
tilized egg. Zebrafish and frog eggs are about 1 mm in diameter; the

turtle and chick begin as discs 3 or 4 mm in diameter above the yolk;
while the human egg is only one-tenth of a millimeter in diameter.
The earliest cell divisions in zebrafish, turtle, and chick embryos re-
semble each other somewhat. However, in many frogs the embryos
penetrate the yolk. Mammals are very different. Cell movements at
the end of division and during gastrulation are very different in the
five different classes. In the zebrafish, cells move slowly outside the
yolk, which brings about the development of the embryo. In frogs,
cells move as interconnected thin layers, through a pore into the inner

cavity. In turtles, chicks, and humans they flow along a channel into
the internal cavity of the embryonic disc. If the theory regarding the
early development of vertebrates were correct, we would expect
these five classes to resemble each other most closely as fertilized
eggs, to show more differences during division, and still more during
gastrulation. Yet, that is not what we observe. The eggs of the five
classes begin life in very different ways.

C Co n c l l u s i i o n
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onclusion
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c
u
C Conclusion
The really interesting thing is that a theory which the world of
science has regarded as invalid for decades should be put forward by
the NAS as evidence of evolution. The NAS probably refrains from
mentioning Haeckel's name in the chapter in question, since that
name is redolent of fraud; and yet it goes along with that same fraud
by describing Haeckel's false theory as if it were scientific fact.

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