Morphology (biology)

Morphology is a branch of life science dealing with the study of the overall structure of an organism or taxon and its component parts.

[4] Among other important theorists of morphology are Lorenz Oken, Georges Cuvier, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Richard Owen, Carl Gegenbaur and Ernst Haeckel.

[5][6] In 1830, Cuvier and Saint-Hilaire engaged in a famous debate, which is said to exemplify the two major deviations in biological thinking at the time – whether animal structure was due to function or evolution.

In addition, there can be morphological differences within a species, such as in Apoica flavissima where queens are significantly smaller than workers.

[11] The invention and development of microscopy enabled the observation of 3-D cell morphology with both high spatial and temporal resolution.