epigenesis

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See also: epigénesis

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From epi- +‎ -genesis.

Noun

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epigenesis (countable and uncountable, plural epigeneses)

  1. (biology) The theory that an organism develops by differentiation from an unstructured egg rather than by simple enlarging of something preformed.
    Coordinate term: syngenesis
    • 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 100:
      Ignored for two millennia, Aristotle, in his book On the Generation of Animals, first proposed the theory of epigenesis in biology, suggesting that development of a plant or animal from an egg or spore follows a sequence of steps in which the organism changes and the various organs form.
  2. (geology) Changes in the mineral content of rock after its formation.
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