Further Reading

Further reading on the questions explored in About Development, organized by reading. Works already cited in the readings are not repeated here; see the references at the end of each reading.

1.1 Development: A Wider View

Moore, D. S., & Lickliter, R. (2023). Development as explanation: Understanding phenotypic stability and variability after the failure of genetic determinism. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 178, 72–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2023.01.003

Bierbach, D., Laskowski, K. L., & Wolf, M. (2017). Behavioural individuality in clonal fish arises despite near-identical rearing conditions. Nature Communications, 8, 15361. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15361

1.2 Explanatory Frames

Marshall, P. J. (2014). Beyond different levels: Embodiment and the developmental system. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 929. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00929

Bateson, P., & Laland, K. N. (2013). Tinbergen’s four questions: An appreciation and an update. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 28(12), 712–718. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.09.013

1.3 Life Cycles and the Direction of Development

Bonner, J. T. (1993). Life cycles: Reflections of an evolutionary biologist. Princeton University Press.

1.4 The Origins of Multicellular Development

Brunet, T., & King, N. (2017). The origin of animal multicellularity and cell differentiation. Developmental Cell, 43(2), 124–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2017.09.016

Knoll, A. H. (2011). The multiple origins of complex multicellularity. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 39, 217–239. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.earth.031208.100209

2.1 Made or Given?

Dolnick, E. (2017). The seeds of life: From Aristotle to da Vinci, from sharks’ teeth to frogs’ pants, the long and strange quest to discover where babies come from. Basic Books.

Van Speybroeck, L., De Waele, D., & Van de Vijver, G. (2002). Theories in early embryology: Close connections between epigenesis, preformationism, and self-organization. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 981, 7–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb04910.x

2.2 The Riddle of Form and Matter

Dupré, J., & Nicholson, D. J. (2018). A manifesto for a processual philosophy of biology. In D. J. Nicholson & J. Dupré (Eds.), Everything flows: Towards a processual philosophy of biology (pp. 3–45). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198779636.003.0001

Bich, L. (2024). Biological organization. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009393959

2.3 DNA as a Developmental Resource

DiFrisco, J., & Priya, R. (2025). The interplay of tissue mechanics and gene regulatory networks in the evolution of morphogenesis. Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology, 175, 103654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semcdb.2025.103654

Maizels, R. J., & Briscoe, J. (2026). Gene regulatory networks: From correlative models to causal explanations. Nature Reviews Genetics, 27, 485–498. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-026-00939-1

2.4 Developmental Systems Theory

Griffiths, P. E., & Tabery, J. (2013). Developmental systems theory: What does it explain, and how does it explain it? Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 44, 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-397947-6.00003-9

Turkheimer, E. (2024). Understanding the nature–nurture debate. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955775

2.5 Evolution and Development

Carroll, S. B. (2005). Endless forms most beautiful: The new science of evo devo and the making of the animal kingdom. W. W. Norton & Company. https://wwnorton.com/books/Endless-Forms-Most-Beautiful/

Laland, K. N., Uller, T., Feldman, M. W., Sterelny, K., Müller, G. B., Moczek, A., Jablonka, E., Odling-Smee, J., Wray, G. A., Hoekstra, H. E., Futuyma, D. J., Lenski, R. E., Mackay, T. F. C., Schluter, D., & Strassmann, J. E. (2014). Does evolutionary theory need a rethink? Nature, 514, 161–164. https://doi.org/10.1038/514161a

Witherington, D. C., Lickliter, R., & Moore, D. S. (2023). What taking development seriously means for evolutionary theory. Human Development, 67(5–6), 318–327. https://doi.org/10.1159/000535723

Baedke, J. (2025). The organism. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009495035

3.1 The Evolution of Bodies and Brains

Keijzer, F., van Duijn, M., & Lyon, P. (2013). What nervous systems do: Early evolution, input–output, and the skin brain thesis. Adaptive Behavior, 21(2), 67–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712312465330

3.2 Brain, Body, World

Blumberg, M. S., Marques, H. G., & Iida, F. (2013). Twitching in sensorimotor development from sleeping rats to robots. Current Biology, 23(12), R532–R537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.075

Molnár, Z., Luhmann, H. J., & Kanold, P. O. (2020). Transient cortical circuits match spontaneous and sensory-driven activity during development. Science, 370(6514), eabb2153. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb2153

3.3 Plasticity and Constraint

Knudsen, E. I. (2004). Sensitive periods in the development of the brain and behavior. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(8), 1412–1425. https://doi.org/10.1162/0898929042304796

Krubitzer, L. A., & Dooley, J. C. (2013). Cortical plasticity within and across lifetimes: How can development inform us about phenotypic transformations? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 620. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00620