Homotypy

homotypy

[¦hä·mə¦tī·pē]

(biology)

Protective device based on resemblance of shape to the background.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Homotypy

 

the similarity of organ structures that are located symmetrically on the sides of a body (for example, right and left hands). Sometimes homotypy is masked by secondary changes, for example in the lungs, the ovaries, and the oviducts in birds. This is the meaning of the term “homotypy” according to the German biologists E. Haeckel and C. Gegenbaur. The English biologist R. Owen calls serial homology “homotypy.” Homotypic organs are called antimeres.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.