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American Zoologist 1999 39(3):664-675; doi:10.1093/icb/39.3.664
© 1999 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Morphogenesis and Homology in Arthropod Limbs1

TERRI A. WILLIAMS2,3
Department of Zoology, University of Texas Austin, TX 78712

Correspondence: 2E-mail: terri.williams{at}yale.edu

Arthropods exhibit highly diverse limb morphologies ranging from unbranched walking legs to multibranched swimming paddles. Understanding morphogenesis in structurally diverse limbs can be useful for ascertaining homologies between limbs. Structurally similar limbs have been produced by different evolutionary modifications of morphogenesis in certain cases. Whereas it is easy to support the claim that whole arthropod limbs are homologous structures, I demonstrate that it is not always possible to draw well-founded homologies between parts of different limbs. This result is important with regard to general models of appendage development and evolution in arthropods because it clarifies contradictory explanations based exclusively on gene expression data.


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