Truth in Science

Haeckel’s embryo pictures have been removed from the Science Museum website. Ten days ago, Truth in Science pointed out on this blog that Haeckel’s pictures contain serious flaws, as shown by Dr Michael Richardson and colleagues in 1997.

The Science Museum has now replaced Haeckel’s drawings with a photograph of what appears to be a single embryo.

We are grateful to the Science Museum for removing Haeckel’s pictures, but would point out that the page now has no scientific data with which to support the commentary:

All the embryos of vertebrates (animals with backbones) pass through a common stage early in their development. At this stage they look quite similar, although the animals can be as different as a human and a mouse. This happens as their body plans are being laid down. It seems that an efficient way of marking out the body plan arose millions of years ago, and has remained virtually unchanged throughout animal evolution.

This lack of data contrasts with the following section: "How do cells know what to do?" which has an informative photograph showing the growth of neurones.

In our view, the Science Museum should now support their commentary with actual photographs of human and mouse embryos at the same stage of development, allowing visitors to assess for themselves the similarities and differences.