Talk:Embryology
From Academic Kids
This page should probably merged with developmental biology, which is the more modern term for the field, which encompasses embryology. Developmental biology also gets more Google hits than embryology (722,000 vs 379,000), and is the more common title of textbooks in the field. I will do the merging if nobody objects. --Lexor|Talk 09:09, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
I would have thought that Embryology would refer to Human prenatal development, and Dev. Biology to other species too. However there may be a difference in usage on the 2 sides of the Atlantic. A search of Amazon.co.uk shows that the British teztbooks seem to have retained the word Embryology in their titles:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/ref=sr_sp_go_as/026-2184753-4140418
Embryology vs Developmental Biology
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The Embryology and the Developmental Biology articles should not be merged. The idea that embryology is the same as developmetal biology does not make sense neither in American English nor in British English. Embryology is the study of the biological development of embryos, but developmental biology does not only study the biological development of embryos. It also studies the development of organisms after the embryonic stage until they become adults, according to definitions from various sources, e.g. Merriam-Webster, Random House or Houghton Mifflin dictionaries. This is also true for American English. Those dictionaries are in American English, not British English.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0405948.html - developmental biology - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease
developmental biology - "the branch of biology dealing with the processes of growth and change that transform an organism from a fertilized egg or asexual reproductive unit, as a spore or gemmule, to an adult."
Note that it explicitly says "to an adult".
embryology "—n., —pl. -gies. 1. the science dealing with the formation, development, structure, and functional activities of embryos. 2. the origin, growth, and development of an embryo: the embryology of the chick."
Here you have to look at sense 1, which starts with "the science", not sense 2. That's the sense of "embryology" which the Embryology article on Wikipedia talks about.
Another example: http://www.answers.com/developmental+biology&r=67 - The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. [on Answers.com, found with the Google definition link]
developmental biology - "The study of the processes by which an organism develops from a zygote to its full structure. This field includes the study of cellular differentiation as well as body structure development. (See also embryology.)"
embryology - "The study of the embryo; a major field of research in modern biology."
Note that under "developmental biology" it says "an organism develops from a zygote to its full structure". "Its full structure" means the organism's "full structure", not the zygote's. "Full structure" is the structure of an adult.
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Google Fight : Make this fight with googleFight \"developmental biology\" VS embryology (http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=%22developmental+biology%22&word2=embryology)
