Heackel had this theory calked the biogenetic law which says that the heritable material develops in sequence, and that things can be added to it at the end, but not inserted in the middle. So ABCDEF can, ABCEF with a missing D can also, but ACBDEF where C is an historical evolutionary addition after B cannot. So the development of the organism to adulthood repeats its evolutionary history
He made the drawings more consistent with the biogenetic law, was convicted of fraud by a university committee, and a denunciation of Heackels findings appeared in Origin of Species. He himself said it was normal practice in science, to make the evidence fit neater.
The biogenetic law was later said by Gould and several historians to originate racial pseudoscience, however the innocent alphabetic theory I explained above seems to have no racism inherent, the link to racist pseudoscience is obviously from natural selection theory.
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