D'Arcy W. Thompson's On Growth and Form: A landmark for the mathematical foundations of epigenetics.

The celebrated 1917 work "On Growth and Form" of D'Arcy W. Thompson has established a landmark for mathematical biology, introducing new perspectives of study and research in biology, providing mathematical methods to morphology of biological systems. In this brief historical essay, we recall the novelties and relevance of the work from a retrospective stance, above all pointing out the crucial role played by it in the dawning of epigenetic standpoint. The role of underlying epigenetic processes in generation of biological forms via similarity transformations is analyzed within the framework of D'Arcy Thompson. The significance of D'Arcy Thompson as a predecessor of the relational biology and of the epigenetic concepts of evolution is discussed.
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