Includes Aristotle's De historia animalium, De partibus animalium, and De generatione animalium. Aristotle was the first scientist to gather empirical evidence about the biological world through observation. By his careful observations and excellent accounts of the natural history of those living creatures which he was able to investigate in De historia animalium Aristotle may be considered the first scientific naturalist. English translation in his Works...edited by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross, Oxford, 1910, vol. 4.

Aristotle's De partibus animalium is the first animal physiology. English translation in his Works edited by Smith and Ross, vol. 5. That edition excluded annotations by the translator,  William Ogle, that were published in the edition of London, 1882.

Aristotle's De generatione animalium is the first textbook on embryology. "The depth of Aristotle's insight into the generation of animals has not been surpassed" (Needham). English translation in his Works, edited Smith & Ross, vol. 5. Later translations are also available.

ISTC: ia00973000

Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link

Aristotle, at one time tutor to Alexander the Great, was, among other things, the first observational biologist, and the founder of comparative anatomy. His views had a profound influence in determining the direction of biological thought, as well as scientific thought in general. The Augsburg 1479 edition is the first of ten printed editions of Aristotle's works in Latin issued in the 15th century, and like all of them, it represents selections rather than his complete works. The 1479 edition is ISTC No. ia00960000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link. 

First edition of the collected works of Aristotle with the commentaries of Averroes, by which Aristotle was mainly studied during the Middle Ages. The purpose of Vernia's edition was to provide an accurate edition of Averroes's commentaries. These were first printed in Padua, 1472-1473. As usual, various different translators were involved in this collected edition, and a few texts by authors other than Aristotle were added. The 8 parts of the set were:

Between November 1495 and June 1498 scholar printer Aldus Manutius (Teobaldo Mannucci) of Venice issued the first edition in the original Greek of Aristotle's Opera omnia. The set appeared in five thick quarto or small folio volumes, often bound in six. Assembling all of the texts was a major challenge for Aldus and his associates, requiring the help of scholars in different countries, and yet during the publication process Greek texts of both the Poetics and On Rhetoric, remained elusive, so they were excluded from the set. The editio princeps of Aristotle appeared at the close of a century that had witnessed a strong revival in Greek and humanistic studies; it was the first major Greek prose text, or collection of texts, to be reintroduced to the Western world in its original language by means of the printing press, and its success launched Aldus's efforts to produce further editiones principes of other Greek authors. In addition to the Aristotelian works, the five volumes contained works by Aristotle's successor, the botanist Theophrastus, the commentator on Aristotle, Alexander of Aphrodisias, the neo-Platonic philosopher Porphyrius, and Philo of Alexandria (Philo Judaeus) along with the spurious De historia philosophia attributed to Galen. ISTC No.: ia00959000. Digital facsimiles of the whole set are available from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, vol. 1 at this link.

Thomaeus's commentary on Aristotle's Mechanica includes an explanation of the action of a dental forceps illustrated with two small woodcut illustrations on page XXXXI. This was the first printed dental illustration. The work also include's commentaries on Aristotle's De motu animalium and De animalium incessu.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

One of the earliest detailed and realistic descriptions of the New World. Acosta hypothesized that the indigenous peoples of Latin America had migrated from Asia. He also divided the native peoples into three barbarian categories, described Inca and Aztec customs and history, as well as other information such as winds and tides, lakes, rivers, plants, animals, and mineral resources in the New World. Lib. 3, chap. 9 contains his description of mountain sickness, “Acosta’s disease”, which he experienced during his crossing of the Peruvian Andes. This was the first description of altitude sickness. Digital facsimile of 1590 edition from Google Books at this link.

Translated into English as The naturall and morall historie of the East and West Indies Intreating of the remarkable things of heaven, of the elements, mettalls, plants and beasts which are proper to that country: together with the manners, ceremonies, lawes, governments, and warres of the Indians. Written in Spanish by the R.F. Ioseph Acosta, and translated into English by E.G. (London, 1604). Full text of the 1604 translation from Early English Books Online at this link.

Aldrovandi, first director of the botanical garden at Bologna, was a prolific writer. Some of his writings made their first appearance in print after his death. He designed them as a whole to form an enormous illustrated encyclopedia of natural history and biology.

The first microscopical section in biology is discussed and illustrated in Odierna’s study of the fly’s eye, which is also the first description of the faceted eye of an arthropod.

Engraved frontispieces in Latin; text in Dutch. None of the volumes is dated. An edition in Latin, also undated, was issued by the same publisher in 3 vols. during the same years with the following title: Metamorphosis et historia naturalis insectorum. Cum commentariiis D. Joannis de Mey.

Goedaert, a Dutch landscape and flower painter who lived in Middelburg, was one of the earliest authors on entomology, and first to write on the insects of the Netherlands based on firsthand observations and experiments between 1635 and 1658. "[His work] shows meticulous observation of all the growth phases of the insects depicted, including metamorphosis. There is no internal anatomy, only external. Goedhart makes an interesting error, indicating moth caterpillars can produce flies. Presumably he meant Ichneumonidae" (Wikipedia article on Jan Goedart, accessed 02-2017). The plates in some copies were hand-colored; digital facsimile of an uncolored copy of the edition in Dutch from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. Digital facsimile of a colored copy of the edition in Latin from the Internet Archive at this link. English translation, London, 1682; French translation, 1700.

Hooke, at one time research assistant to Robert Boyle, was one of the greatest inventive geniuses of all time. This was the first book devoted entirely to microscopical observations, and also the first book to pair its microscopic descriptions with profuse and detailed illustrations. The 38 copperplate engravings in the book were mostly after drawings by Hooke; some were probably after drawings by the architect and occasional scientist, Sir Christopher Wren. This graphic portrayal of the hitherto unknown microcosm had an impact rivalling that of Galileo's Sidereus nuncius (1610), which was the first book to include images of the macrocosm shown through the telescope. It was also the second book published under the auspices of the Royal Society of London.

Hooke constructed one of the most famous of the early compound microscopes, and began his observations with studies of non-living materials, such as woven cloth and frozen urine crystals, then proceeded to investigations of plant and animal life. He published the first studies of insect anatomy, giving a lucid account of the compound eye of the fly, and illustrating the microscopic details of such structures as apian wings, flies' legs and feet, and the sting of the bee. His famous and dramatic portraits of the flea and louse, a frightening eighteen inches long, are hardly less startling today than they must have been to Hooke's contemporaries. His botanical observations include the first description of the plant-like form of molds, and of the honeycomb-like structure of cork, which last he described as being composed of "cellulae"— thereby coining the modern biological usage of the work "cell" to describe the basic microscopic units of tissue. Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine at this link.

In the first scientific study of spontanteous generation Redi’s experiments dealt the first real blow to the ancient doctrine. In these experiments Redi made use of what we now term “controls”. English translation, 1909.

Malpighi’s work on the silkworm represents the first monograph on an invertebrate and records one of the most striking pieces of research work on his part. He dissected the silkworm under the microscope with great skill and observed its intricate structure; before the appearance of this work the silkworm was believed to have no internal organs.

Perrault was the leader of a team of comparative anatomists that included Guichard Joseph Duverney, Jean Pecquet, Moyse Charas and Philippe de la Hire; they were often called the “Parisians” in contemporary literature because of their membership in the Académie Royale des Sciences. Their investigations began with a thresher shark and lion from the royal menagerie and went on to encompass forty-nine vertebrate species. “Although some of the discoveries on which the Parisians most prided themselves—including the nictitating membrane that Perrault first observed in a cassowary, the external lobation of the kidneys in the bear, and the castoreal glands of the beaver—had been observed earlier, no such detailed and exact descriptions and illustrations had been published before” (Dictionary of Scientific Biography). In the spirit of rationalism, Perrault and his team investigated and debunked many popular myths attached to certain species, such as the legend that salamanders live in fire or that chameleons subsist on air. They also recorded their methods of work along with their results, providing the only contemporary disclosure of how such anatomical research was conducted in the seventeenth century. The Mémoires were originally issued in two parts in 1671 and 1676; they were later reissued in 1676 (with slight changes) as one volume with a new title-leaf. The two volumes of the Mémoires contain descriptions of twenty-nine species, including the lion, the chameleon, the shark, the lynx, the porcupine, the eagle, the cormorant and the ostrich.

In response to Isaac de la Peyrere‘s theory of polygenesis, Hale, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, advanced his own theory that the earth was not eternal, but rather had a spontaneous “beginning,” and defended “the Mosaic account of the single origin of all peoples.“ Hale also seems to have been the first to use the expression ‘Geometrical Proportion’ for the growth of a population from a single family” (Hutchinson). In this he anticipated Malthus (No. 215.4). He believed that in animals, especially insects, various natural calamities reduce the numbers to low levels intermittently, so maintaining a balance of nature. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Illustrates several early microscopes, including the famous microscopes of the Bolognese Joseph Campani. Contradicting Redi, Bonanni tried to show that spontaneous generation was possible in animals "without blood and a heart." Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

This pioneering work on experimental entomology incorporates Bonnet’s most important discovery–parthenogenetic reproduction–based on his study of aphids. Bonnet used the result of this and other discoveries as a basis for speculation about life on earth. This work presents in tabular form his version of the “great chain of being”. Bonnet’s concept of the essential continuity of life, a consequence of his discovery and preformationist interpretation of parthenogenesis, was a major force in the shaping of later evolutionary opinion. See No. 472.

Redi was a leading physician in Italy. He is best remembered for his experiments discrediting the theory of spontaneous generation and for his pioneer work in the field of parasitology (see No. 2448.1); see also the article on Redi by R. Cole in Annals of Medical History 1926, 8, 347-59.

Spallanzani, a believer in preformation theory, found that he could prevent contamination by microorganisms in strongly heated infusions protected from aerial contamination, but he observed that as soon as air was allowed to enter the flask, microorganisms proliferated. He was one of the first to dispute the doctrine of spontaneous generation. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

In this preliminary to a larger work on regeneration which was never published, Spallanzani described regenerative capacities of remarkable complexity and repetitiveness in the land snail, salamander and toad and frog, establishing the general law that an inverse ratio obtains between the regenerative capacity and age of the individual. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link. English translation as An essay on animal reproductions (London, 1769). Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

Later refutation of the theory of spontaneous generation. Spallanzani’s conclusions were similar to those expressed by Pasteur nearly a century later. His collected works were published in Milan, 2 vols., 1932-33. English translation as Dissertations relative to the natural history of animals and vegetables. 2 vols., London, 1784. Digital facsimile of the "new edition, corrected and enlarged" (1789) from the Internet Archive at this link.

The “Discours d’ouverture” contains Lamarck’s first published statement of the theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. See No. 316.

Simultaneously with Lamarck, Treviranus coined the term “biology” for the study of living things, and he was the first to use it in a book title. This massive work was a summary of all basic knowledge about the structure and function of living matter. Treviranus wrote that any living creature has the ability to adapt its organization to changing external conditions. Thus both Haeckel and Weismann considered Treviranus to be a precurser of evolution theory, even though Treviranus never explained how changes in organic structures occurred nor how they could become hereditary. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Erasmus Darwin's last poem, which mainly expounds his theories of evolution. He traces the progress of life form its origin as microscopic specks in premeval seas to its culmination in a civilized human society. The first canto shows life's origin and its evolution from aquatic to land forms. The second deals with reproduction--asexual, hermaphroditic and finally sexual reproduction with all its advantages. The third canto traces the progress of the mind, from its origin as a mere meeting-place of nerves to its present complexity in man. In the fourth canto Darwin descrbies the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest. The essay-length scientific notes (last 124pp.) contain summaries of theories of spontaneous generation, etc. Erasmus Darwin's theory of evolution has been compared to Lamarckism.

Oken maintained that all organic beings originate from, and consist of, cells, and that organisms are produced by an agglomeration of these cells.

Oken’s vertebral theory of the skull.

Lamarck was one of the greatest of the comparative anatomists. This work is considered the greatest exposition of his argument that evolution occurred by the inheritance of characteristics acquired by animals as a result of the use or disuse of organs in response to external stimuli. English translation by H. Elliot, 1914. Digital facsimile of the 1809 edition from Google Books at this link.

An elaborate expansion of Lamarck’s one-volume work with the same title published in Paris, 1801 (No.215.5). As a systematist Lamarck made important contributions to biology. He separated spiders and crustaceans from insects, made advances in the classification of worms and echinoderms, and introduced the classification of animals into vertebrates and invertebrates. The introduction to this work includes Lamarck’s summary of his four laws of evolution. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Lorenz Oken, a leading light in the Nature-Philosophical School in Germany, produced important work in the field of biology. He founded the journal Isis, which published articles of great value; its incursion into the field of German politics led to a demand for the resignation of Oken from his professorship or the suppression of his journal. Oken resigned and continued to publish Isis.

Chamisso was naturalist on the Kotzebue voyage of 1815-1818. This monograph on certain Vermes included the first description of several of the tunicates and the earliest use of the expression “alternation of generations”. Nissen, Zoologische Buchillustration, 862.

Digital facsimiles from the Internet Archive at this link.

Darwin's teacher, John Stevens Henslow, had some of Darwin's letters to him published for private distribution as a pamphlet while Darwin was on the Beagle circumnavigation. Estimates of the number of copies printed vary from about 25 to about 200.

Proof that putrefaction is produced by living bodies. Independently of Cagniard-Latour, Schwann discovered the yeast cell. He is regarded as the founder of the germ theory of putrefaction and fermentation.

Dutrochet asserted that respiration follows the same pattern in both animals and plants, showing that the minute openings on the surface of leaves (the stomata) communicate with lacunae in deeper tissue. He also demonstrated that only the green parts of the plant can absorb carbon dioxide, thereby transforming light energy into chemical energy. The Mémoires are a collection of all his more important biological papers.

Darwin’s first published book, now universally known as The Voyage of the Beagle, is the most often read and the most often printed of all his works, after On the origin of species. Its relation to the background of Darwin's evolutionary ideas has often been stressed.

The traditionally identified first issue forms the third volume of The Narrative of the Voyages of H. M. Ships Adventure and Beagle, edited by Captain Robert Fitzroy and published, in three volumes and an appendix to Volume II, in 1839 in London by Henry Colburn. In its first separate issue, also in 1839, it was called Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History. Whether the separate version was issued simultaneously with the set, or slightly later is unknown, as both were advertised in the same set of advertisements in August 1839. The text and maps of the separate version are identifical to the set except that pp. i-iv of the preliminaries are cancels and [v-vi], the original volume title, is discarded.

Though Darwin tended to discard or disperse the manuscripts of his later works after they were published, in some cases giving sheets to his children for use as scrap paper, he saved the  original autograph manuscript for this work, and it is preserved at Down House. The manuscript was reproduced in facsimile by Genesis Publications, London, 1979.

Steenstrup is responsible for the theory of the “alternation of generations”. He showed that certain animals produce offspring which never resemble them but which, on the other hand, bring forth progeny which return in form and nature to their grandparents or more distant ancestors. An edition in German was also published in 1842. An English translation of the book was published by the Ray Society of London in 1845.

This outspoken statement of a belief in evolution, published anonymously to protect Chambers’s reputation as a publisher, anticipated Darwin’s Origin by 16 years and generally prepared the public for Darwin’s theories. For a scientific book in the Victorian era, it became a sensational best seller. Authorship was not revealed until the 12th edition (1884) 13 years after Chambers’s death. Facsimile reprint, Leicester, Univ. Press, 1969. See M. Millhauser, Just before Darwin: Robert Chambers and ‘Vestiges’, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, [1959].

Owen’s vertebral theory of the origin of the skull, later refuted by Thomas Huxley and others.
"Owen began working systematically on problems of transcendental morphology in 1841, as part of his curatorial task to arrange the osteological collection of the Hunterian Museum. The osteological work was not published until 1853, but in the intervening years various spin-offs of this basic museum work appeared in print. . . . Owen extracted from the catalogue work his comprehensive account of transcendental osteology which he presented to the British Association in the form of a major report (1846); it was enormously detailed, densely packed with specifics, loaded with technical terms, and tedious to read. This report, with some additions, was published in book form under the title On the Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton (1848). The following year, 1849, Owen expanded upon some parts of his BAAS Report in a lecture at the Royal Institution, published as On the Nature of Limbs. It was less overloaded with anatomical detail and nomenclature than his report, and more accessible to a wider audience" (Rupke, Richard Owen Victorian Naturalist, pp. 163-64)

This work attacked Liebig’s theories, although courteously. Moleschott, a Dutch physiologist, evolved a purely materialistic conception of the world. He considered life a magnificent metabolic process, and thought a product of the activities of the brain.

This paper is sometimes referred to as the Sarawak Law paper since it was written while Wallace was on a specimen collecting expedition in the province of Sarawak (East Malayasian States) on the great island of Borneo. The paper has been misrepresented by certain historians as presenting a portion of the theory of natural selection. That is false; Wallace did not publish on natural selection until the Darwin-Wallace papers published in 1858 (No. 219).

The "law" states "The following law may be deduced from these facts: — Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre–existing closely allied species."  

About this Malcolm Jay Kottler wrote to me in April, 2023, "Darwin did not see that Wallace was thinking in evolutionary terms in this paper. In his paper Wallace used the word 'created' a number of times--such as 'It is evidently possible that two or three distinct species may have had a common antitype, and that each of these may again have become the antitypes from which other closely allied species were created"--which Darwin interpreted as creationist, and not evolutionary, in meaning.

See John van Wyhe, "The impact of A. R. Wallace's Sarawak Law paper reassessed," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 60 (2016) 56-66.

Vols. 1-4 by Louis Agassiz were published from 1857-1862; Vol. 5, North American starfishes by Alexander Agassiz, appeared in 1877. Louis Agassiz was, for his time, the leading comparative anatomist in America and a virulent opponent of Darwinism. Ten volumes of this set were planned but only 5 appeared. Volume one contains Louis Agassiz's theoretical work, Essay on Classification. The remainder of the set is valuable for its descriptions of American turtles. Digital facsimiles of the 5 vols. from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This great systematic work, begun by Bronn, was continued by other naturalists. It deals with both recent and fossil zoology. Bronn wrote the volumes dealing with Amorphozoa, Actinozoa, and Malacozoa, published 1859-1862.  Digital facsimile  of some of the volumes from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. The Wikipedia article on Bronn listed the following volumes published in the series, as of 02-2017:

"Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs (alternative title Dr. H.G. Bronn's Klassen und Ordnugen des Thier-Reichs: wissenschaftlich dargestellt in Wort und Bild). C.F. Winter, Leipzig und Heidelberg, 1859. Some volumes were not published. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.2054.

• First editions:
  • Band 1: Amorphozoa, von H.G. Bronn, 1859, [1].
  • Band 2: Actinozoa, von H.G. Bronn, 1860, [2].
  • Band 3, Malacozoa, Abt. 1: Malacozoa acephala, von H.G. Bronn, 1862, [3].
  • Band 3, Malacozoa, Abt. 2: Malacozoa cephalophora, von W. Keferstein, 1862-1866, [4].
  • Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Halfte 1: Entomostraca. Von A. Gerstaecker, 1866-1879, [5].
  • Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Halfte 2: Malacostraca. Von A. Gerstaecker, und A. E. Ortmann. Princeton, 1901, [6], plates [7].
• Band 1, Protozoa, Abt. 1: Sarkodina und Sporozoa, von O. Bütschli, 1880–82, [8].
• Band 1, Protozoa, Abt. 2: Mastigophora, von O. Bütschli, 1883–87, [9], plates [10].
• Band 1, Protozoa, Abt. 3: Infusoria und System der Radiolaria, von O. Bütschli, 1887–89, [11], plates [12].
• Band 2, Abt. 1: Spongien (Porifera), von Dr. G.C.J. Vosmaer, 1887, [13].
• Band 2, Abt. 2, Coelenterata, Buch 1, Abs. 1: Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Cölenteraten, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Carl Chun, 1889-1892, [14].
• Band 2, Abt. 2, Coelenterata, Buch 1, Abs. 2: Specieller Theil, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Carl Chun, 1894-1916.
• Band 2, Abt. 2, Coelenterata, Buch 2: Scyphomedusae, bearbeitet von M. E. Thiel, 1936-1962.
• Band 2, Abt. 2, Coelenterata, Buch 3: Anthozoa, bearbeitet von Dr. O. Carlgren, 1903 + atlas, [15].
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 1: Die Seewalzen, von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, 1889-1892, [16].
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 2: Die Seesterne, begonnen von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, fortgesetzt von Prof. Dr. Otto Hamann, 1899, [17].
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 3: Die Schlangensterne, begonnen von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, fortgesetzt von Prof. Dr. Otto Hamann, 1901.
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 4: Die Seeigel, begonnen von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, fortgesetzt von Prof. Dr. Otto Hamann, 1904, [18].
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 5: Die Seelilien, von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, 1889-1907, [19].
• Band 3, Mollusca, Abt. 1: Amphineura und Scaphopoda, von Dr. H. Simroth, 1892-1895, [20].
• Band 3, Mollusca, Abt. 2, Buch 1: Gastropoda prosobranchia, von Dr. H. Simroth, 1896-1907 + atlas, [21].
• Band 3, Mollusca, Abt. 2, Buch 2: Pulmonata, von Dr. H. Simroth, fortgeführt von Dr. H. Hoffmann, 1896-1907 + atlas.
• Band 3, Mollusca, Abt. 3: Bivalvia, Teil 1-2, bearbeitet von Dr. F. Haas, 1935-1955.
• Band 3, Supplement 1, Tunicata (Manteltiere), Abt. 1: Die Appendicularien und Ascidien, begonnen von Dr. Osw. Seeliger, fortgesetzt von Dr. R. Hartmeyer, 1893-1911, [22], [23], [24].
• Band 3, Supplement 1, Tunicata (Manteltiere), Abt. 2: Pyrosomen, begonnen von Dr. Osw. Seeliger, fortgesetzt von Dr. G. Neumann, 1910-1913, [25].
• Band 3, Supplement 2, Tunikaten (Manteltiere), Abt. 2, Buch 2, Lief. 1: Doliolidae, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Günther Neumann.
• Band 3, Supplement 2, Tunikaten (Manteltiere), Abt. 2, Buch 2, Lief. 2-3: Salpidae, bearbeitet von J. E. W. Ihle, 1935-1939.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1a: Mionelminthes, Trichoplax und Trematodes, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. H. Pagenstecher und Prof. Dr. M. Braun, 1879-1893, [26].
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1b: Cestodes, fortgesetzt von Prof. Dr. M. Braun, 1894-1900 + atlas, [27].
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1c, Turbellaria, Abt. 1: Acoela und Rhabdocoelida, bearbeitet von Dr. L. von Graff, mit Beiträgen von Prof. Dr. L. Böhmig und Prof. Dr. Fr. von Wagner, 1904-1908 + atlas, [28].
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1c, Turbellaria, Abt. 2: Tricladida, bearbeitet von Dr. L. von Graff, mit Beiträgen von Prof. Dr. P. Steinmann, Prof. Dr. L. Böhmig und Dr. A. Meixner, 1912-1917 + atlas, [29].
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1c, Turbellaria, Abt. 3: Polycladida, bearbeitet von R. Stummer-Traunfels, 1933.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 2, Aschelminthen, Trochelminthes, Buch 1, Teil 1: Rotatorien, Gastrotrichen und Kinorhynchen, bearbeitet von A. Remane, 1929-1933.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 2, Aschelminthen, Buch 1, Teil 2: Gastrotricha und Kinorhyncha, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. A. Remane, 1935-1936.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 2, Aschelminthen, Buch 3: Nematodes und Nematomorpha, bearbeitet von L. A. Jägerskiöld und J. H. Schuurmans Stekhoven Jr, 1913-1959.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 2, Aschelminthen, Buch 4: Kamptozoa, bearbeitet von Dr. Carl I. Cori, 1936.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 3, Annelides, Buch 2: Polychaeta, bearbeitet von F. Hempelmann, 1937.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 3, Annelides, Buch 3: Oligochaeta, bearbeitet von H. A. Stolte, 1935-1969.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 3, Annelides, Buch 4: Hirudineen, Teil 1-2, bearbeitet von Dr. K. Herter, Dr. W. Schleip und Dr. H. Autrum, 1936-1939.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 4, Tentaculaten, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Buch 1, Phoronidea, Ektoprokta und Brachiopoda, Teil 1: Phronidea, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Carl I. Cori, 1939.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 4, Tentaculaten, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Buch 2, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Teil 1: Chaetognatha, bearbeitet von Dr. W. Kuhl, 1938.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 4, Tentaculaten, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Buch 2, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Teil 2: Hemichordata, bearbeitet von Dr. C. J. van der Horst. 1934-1939.
• Band 4, Vermes, Supplement: Nemertini (Schnurwürmer), bearbeitet von Dr. O. Bürger, 1897-1907, [30].
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 1: Allgemeines.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 2, Teil 1: Phiillopoda.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 2, Teil 2: Ostracoda.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 3, Teil 3: Cirripedia, bearbeitet von Paul Krüger, 1940
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 3, Teil 4: Ascothoracida, bearbeitet von Paul Krüger, 1940
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 4: Thermosbaenacea, bearbeitet von Th. Monod, 1940
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 4, Teil 2: Syncarida, bearbeitet von R. Siewing, 1959
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 5: Isopoda.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 6, Teil 2: Stomatopoda, bearbeitet von Heinrich Balss. 1938
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 7: Decapoda, bearbeitet von Heinrich Balss und W. v. Buddenbrock, 1940-1957.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 2, Myriapoda, Buch 1: Klasse Chilopoda, von Dr. K. W. Verhoeff, 1902-1925.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 2, Myriapoda, Buch 2: Klasse Diplopoda, Teil 1-2, bearbeitet von Dr. K. W. Verhoeff, 1926-1932.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 2, Myriapoda, Buch 3, Symphyla und Pauropoda, bearbeitet von Dr. K. W. Verhoeff, 1933-1934.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 3, Insecta, Buch 6: Embioidea und Orthopteroidea, bearbeitet von Dr. Max Beier, 1955-1959.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 3, Insecta, Buch 8, Teil b.ε: Coccina, [31]; Teil b.γ: Psyllina, [32], bearbeitet von Dozent Dr. Otto Pflugfelder, 1939-1941.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 3, Insecta, Buch 12, Teil a: Neuroptera, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Hermann Friedrich, 1953.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 3, Insecta, Buch 13, Teil f: Aphaniptera, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Julius Wagner, 1939, [33].
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 1: Pentastomida, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. R. Heymons, 1935.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 2: Pantopoda, bearbeitet von H. Helfer und E. Schlottke, 1935.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 3: Tardigrada, bearbeitet von Ernst Marcus, 1929.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 4: Solifuga, Palpigrada, bearbeitet von C. Fr. Roewer, 1933-1934, [34].
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 6, Teil 1: Chelonethi oder Pseudoskorpione, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. C. Fr. Roewer, 1940.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 8: Scorpiones, Pedipalpi, bearbeitet von Franz Werner, 1934-1935.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 1: Pisces (Fische), Buch 1: Einleitendes, Leptocardii und Cyclostomi, bearbeitet von Dr. E. Lönnberg, G. Favaro, B. Mozejko und M. Rauther, 1924.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 1: Pisces (Fische), Buch 2, Echte Fische, Teil 1: Anatomie, Physiologie und Entwicklungsgeschichte, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. M. Rauther und M. Leiner, 1927-1940.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 1: Pisces (Fische), Buch 2, Echte Fische, Teil 2: Anatomie, bearbeitet von Z. Grodzinski und H. Hoyer und M.Rauther, 1938-1954.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 1: Pisces (Fische), Buch 2, Echte Fische, Teil 3: Ökologie, Systematik, Geographische Verbreitung und Stammesgeschichte. Bearbeitet von G. Duncker und E. Mohr, Hamburg. Wird 1940 zu erscheinen beginnen.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 2: Wirbelthiere (Amphibien), fortgesetzt von C. K. Hoffmann, 1873-1878, [35].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 3, Reptilien, Teil 1: Schildkröten, fortgesetzt von C. K. Hoffmann, 1890, [36].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 3, Reptilien, Teil 2: Eidechsen und Wasserechsen, fortgesetzt von C. K. Hoffmann, 1890, [37], [38].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 3, Reptilien, Teil 3: Schlangen und Entwicklungsgeschichte der Reptilien, fortgesetzt von C. K. Hoffmann, 1890, [39], [40].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 4, Vögel (Aves), Teil 1: Anatomischer Teil. Von H. Gadow (Cambridge) und E. Selenka (Erlangen), 1891, [41].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 4, Vögel (Aves), Teil 2: Systematischer Theil, von Hans Gadow, 1893, [42].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 1 (oder Band 1): Osteologie, Muskulatur, Integument, Verdauungsorgane, Atmungsorgane, Schilddrüse, Thymus, Winterschlaf drüse, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. C. G. Giebel und Prof. Dr. W. Leche, 1874-1900 + atlas, [43].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 1: Das Gefässystem, bearbeitet von Dr. W. Leche, fortgsetzt von Dr. E. Göppert, 1902-1906.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 2: Das Herz. Bearbeitet E. Ackernecht, Leipzig.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 3: Die Arterien.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 4: Die Venen. Bearbeitet H. Grau, Keredj.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 5, Lieferung 1-4: Urogenitalsystem, herausgegeben von Dr. E. Göppert. Erste Unterabteilung, bearbeitet von Dr. U. Gerhardt, 1914, [44]. Lieferung 5: begonnen von Prof. Dr. U. Gerhardt, fortgsetzt von Prof. Dr. Ludwig Freund, 1939, [45].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 6: Das Lymphgefäßsystem. Bearbeitet H. Grau, Keredj.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 3, Nervensystem und Sinnesorgane, Teil 1: Das Zentralnervensystem, bearbeitet von Dr. phil. et med. Ernst Scharrer, 1936.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 3, Nervensystem und Sinnesorgane, Teil 2: Peripheres und autonomes Nervensystem. Bearbeitet H. Chreiber, Frankfurt. Wird 1940 zu erscheinen beginnen.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 3, Nervensystem und Sinnesorgane, Teil 3: Sinnesorgane. Bearbeitet H. Kahmann. München. Wird 1940 zu erscheinen beginnen."

The first printed exposition of the “Darwinian” theory of evolution by natural selection. Had not Wallace independently discovered the theory of natural selection, it is possible that the extremely cautious Darwin might never have published his evolutionary theories during his lifetime. However, Wallace conceived the theory during an attack of malarial fever in Ternate in the Mollucas (February, 1858) and sent a manuscript summary to Darwin, who feared that his discovery would be pre-empted. In the interest of justice Joseph Dalton Hooker and Charles Lyell suggested joint publication of Wallace’s paper, On the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type, prefaced by a section of a manuscript of a work on species written by Darwin in 1844, when it was read by Hooker, plus an abstract of a letter by Darwin to Asa Gray, dated 1857, to show that Darwin’s views on the subject had not changed between 1844 and 1857.

The Darwin-Wallace paper was issued in five different forms, all from the same setting of type. Four of these resulted from the publishing customs of the Linnean Society of London, which issued the journal in three different printed wrappers, depending on whether members subscribed to the zoological or botanical parts alone or both parts together. The fourth form was publication in the annual volume of the Journal, "made up from reserved stock of the parts with new title pages, dated in the year of completion of the volume, and indexes. This again was available complete or as Zoology or Botany alone" (Freeman). The fifth form was the authors' offprint. That form is of the greatest rarity.

Prepared under the advice of Lyell and Hooker, and brought to press soon after publication of the joint paper by Darwin and Wallace (No. 219), this was Darwin’s greatest work and one of the most important books ever published. The whole edition of 1250 copies was sold on the day of publication.

The theory of evolution can be traced to the ancient Greek belief in the “great chain of being.” Darwin’s greatest achievement was to make this centuries-old “underground” concept acceptable to the scientific community by cogently arguing for the existence of a viable mechanism – natural selection – by which new species evolve over vast periods of time. Darwin’s influence on biology was fundamental, and continues to be felt today. He remains, with Albert Einstein, one of the best-known scientists of all time.

Facsimile reproduction, with introduction by E. Mayr, Cambridge, Mass., 1964. See R.B. Freeman, The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2nd ed. Folkestone, Kent, Dawson: 1977. See the Online Variorum of Darwin's Origin of Species, edited by Barbara Bordalejo. This is a variorum edition of the six British editions of Darwin's Origin of Species, published between 1859 and 1872. It identifies and presents every change between the six editions. See the editor's Introduction. Digital facsimile of the 1859 edition from Darwin Online at this link.

The discovery of strict anaerobiosis, important for general biology since it shows that oxygen gas is not a requisite for life.

Extensively revised, and the first edition to include the "historical sketch" crediting the historical precursors to the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin added this chapter in response to writings by Samuel Butler and others.

Bates spent eleven years in the Amazon and there collected 8,000 species of insects new to science. In the above paper he clearly stated and solved the problem of “mimicry”, known today as “Batesian mimicry”. The superficial resemblance of a palatable species (mimic) to an unpalatable species (model) is a form of protective coloration that has evolved by natural selection. (See also No. 228.1)

This series of six lectures delivered to “working men” in November and December, 1862 includes Huxley’s first book-form exposition of Darwin’s theories, of which he was probably the greatest popular exponent. A prolific essayist as well as author of hundreds of scientific papers, Huxley was one of the most eloquent of all English writers on the natural sciences. 

In vol. 1 of this work written after Spencer read Darwin's On the origin of species, Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest." Spencer conceived that every species is endowed with its own type of physiological unit, each unit being capable, under certain circumstances, of reproducing the whole organism. Spencer set forth doctrines of evolution some years before the appearance of the Origin of species. 

Müller, the first German to support Darwin, studied the development of the Crustacea in Brazil and published some of his results in the above little book, which contains much original information. He realized the bearing of individual development on the theory of evolution. English translation as Facts and arguments for Darwin, London, 1869. Repr., 1968.

Cobbold suggested (p. 36) that a mollusc was the intermediate host in bilharziasis.

Like Cobbold, Harley expressed the view that a mollusc was the intermediate host in bilharziasis.

Reprints, with important revisions and additions, nine important papers concerning natural selection, which had previously appeared in journals, and publishes for the first time a major paper on The limits of natural selection as applied to man. Unlike Darwin, Wallace believed that at some point during man’s history man had partially escaped natural selection, and that a “higher intelligence” had a part in the development of the human race.

Haeckel’s gastraea theory, which considers the two-layered gastrula the ancestral form of multicellular animals.

In this study of oyster culture precipitated by the impoverishment of natural oyster beds, Möbius provided the earliest description of a marine animal community maintained in a state of equilibrium by limitations of resources.

Bates’s theory of mimicry did not account for the superficial resemblances between two or more unpalatable species. Müller explained such mimicry, known today as “Müllerian mimicry”. A predator must learn which potential prey are palatable. The coloration of an unpalatable species serves as warning colouration to predators. When warning colouration is shared by two or more unpalatable species, the warning colours are recognized more quickly by the predator and the number of individuals destroyed in each species is reduced while the predator learns. Müller's account contained one of the earliest uses of a mathematical argument in evolutionary ecology to show how powerful the effect of natural selection would be:

"Instead of a general deduction, which is by the way extremely simple, I give an example. There may in a certain area live two unpalatable species; 10,000 individuals of the first species, and 2000 of the second. The predators living in the same area may eat per year 1200 individuals of each [distinct] unpalatable species per year until they avoid it as such. Each species would lose this many if they appeared different; but if they are very similar so that experience with one species benefits the other, then the first species will lose 1000 and the second 200 individuals. The first species therefore will gain because of its similarity 200 individuals, or 2 % of the total number, the second will however gain 1000 individuals, which is 50% of the total number - from this consideration it follows further that probably in some cases (for example Thyridia and Ituna) the question which one of both species is the original and which one is the copy is an irrelevant question; each had an advantage from becoming similar to the other; they could have converged on each other" (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/Mim/muller1878.html, accessed 03-2018).

The Hertwig brothers formulated the “coelom” theory to account for the classification and phylogeny of metazoan animals. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Villemin coined the term antibiosis and advanced the term from an evolutionary viewpoint. Though he presented the concept Villemin did not apply this concept to fight disease.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference.)

Loeb founded the theory of “tropisms” as the basis of the psychology of the lower forms of life. English translation in Loeb’s Studies in general physiology, Vol. 1, 1-88. Chicago, 1905.

The Baldwin effect. "In evolutionary biology, the Baldwin effect describes the effect of learned behavior on evolution. In brief, James Mark Baldwin suggested that an organism's ability to learn new behaviors (e.g. to acclimatise to a new stressor) will affect its reproductive success and will therefore have an effect on the genetic makeup of its species through natural selection. Though this process appears similar to Lamarckian evolution, Lamarck proposed that living things inherited their parents' acquired characteristics. The Baldwin effect has been independently proposed several times, and today it is generally recognized as part of the modern evolutionary synthesis" (Wikipedia article on Baldwin effect, accessed 04-2017). Digital text of the paper from brocku.ca at this link.

Boveri’s experiments, involving multipolar mitoses in sea urchin eggs fertilized by two sperm, demonstrated that different chromosomes perform different functions in development. English translation in No. 534.3.

De motu animalium. De incessu animalium. In his Works, edited by J.A. Smith and W.D. Ross, 5, 698a-714b., Oxford, 1912. 

De Anima. In his Works… translated into English. Edited by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross. 3, 402a-35b., Oxford, 1931.

Aristotle, regarded as the founder of psychology, meant by anima or psyche the living principle which characterizes living substance.

Tissue culture was made possible by Harrison’s proof of the outgrowth of nerve-fibers from ganglion cells.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Extra-vital cultivation and rejuvenation of tissue. 

Carrel demonstrated the potential immortality of mammalian tissue. He was able to keep the excised viscera of an animal alive and functioning physiologically in vitro. For his later work see the same journal, 1911, 14, 244-7; 1913, 18, 155-61.

This work established Loeb's reputation as a researcher who treated organisms as machines. He stated that biologists explain organic phenomena only when they could control those phenomena. Loeb first published the title essay in Popular Science Monthly, 80, 1912, 5-22.

Thompson's description of the mathematical beauty of nature eventually inspired others, such as Alan Turing, to develop the scientific explanation of morphogenesis, the process by which patterns are formed in plants and animals. Digital facsimile of the 1917 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of Thompson's revised second edition (1942) from the Internet Archive at this link. Abridged edition edited by John Tyler Bonner, Cambridge, 1992.

The Hathi Trust maintains versions of all 107 parts, most of which are searchable to a limited extent, at this link.

One of the founders of bacteriology, Pasteur's work on fermentation, the doctrine of spontaneous generation (which he exploded), virus diseases and preventive vaccinations, was fundamental. Digital facsimile of the complete works from BnF Gallica at this link. An early classic biography is René Vallery-Radot (1853-1933), La Vie de Pasteur, Paris, 1900. English translation, 2 vols., 1901. More recent scholarship includes Gerald Geison, The private science of Louis Pasteur (1995). One of the best modern biographies is Patrice Debré, Louis Pasteur, Paris: Flammarion, 1994. English translation by Elborg Forster, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998.

By developing a new infographics style of illustration in which physiological processes and other technical medical and biological concepts were often depicted as, or compared to machines, Kahn made medical and biological information more widely accessible to the general public. Includes the famous large folding color graphic poster, Der Mensch als Industriepalast (98 x 49 cms). Also includes a pair of 3D glasses for viewing 3D images reproduced in the 5th volume.

Published during WWII, Cott's book was the first major work on camouflage in zoology, appreciated by zoologists for its scientific information and carried by many allied soldiers during the war for survival purposes. The Wikipedia analysis of this book is especially valuable. Digital facsimile of the 1957 slightly corrected reprint from the Internet Archive at this link.

The work which defined the modern synthesis of evolutionary biology of the early 20th century.

 Simpson's seminal contribution to the modern evolutionary synthesis integrated the facts of paleontology with those of genetics and natural selection.

"Simpson argued that the microevolution of population genetics was sufficient in itself to explain the patterns of macroevolution observed by paleontology. Simpson also highlighted the distinction between tempo and mode. "Tempo" encompasses "evolutionary rates . . . their acceleration and deceleration, the conditions of exceptionally slow or rapid evolutions, and phenomena suggestive of inertia and momentum", while "mode" embraces "the study of the way, manner, or pattern of evolution, a study in which tempo is a basic factor, but which embraces considerably more than tempo."

Simpson's Tempo and Mode attempted to draw out several distinct generalizations:

• Evolution's tempo can impart information about its mode.
• Multiple tempos can be found in the fossil record (bradytelic, tachytelic, horotelic).
• The facts of paleontology are consistent with the genetical theory of natural selection. Moreover, theories such as orthogenesis, Lamarckism, mutation pressures, and macromutations either are false or play little to no role.
• Most evolution—"nine-tenths"—occurs by the steady phyletic transformation of whole lineages (anagenesis). This contrasts with Ernst Mayr's interpretation of speciation by splitting, particularly allopatric and peripatric speciation.
• The lack of evidence for evolutionary transitions in the fossil record is best accounted for, first, by the poorness of the geological record, and, second, as a consequence of quantum evolution (which is responsible for "the origin of taxonomic units of relatively high rank, such as families, orders, and classes"). Quantum evolution built upon Sewall Wright's theory of random genetic drift." (Wikipedia article on Tempo and Mode in Evolution, accessed 03-2017).

This work about the physical basis of natural phenomena influenced the young James D. Watson and others. The book was a popularization of ideas developed by Max Delbrück in his paper with Timofeeff-Ressovsky in 1935. See No. 254.1.

Sydney Brenner pointed out a fundamental mistake in Schrödinger’s understanding of how genes would operate:

“Anyway, the key point is that Schrödinger says that the chromosomes contain the information to specify the future organism and the means to execute it. I have come to call this ‘Schrödinger’s fundamental error.’ In describing the structure of the chromosome fibre as a code script he states that. ‘The chromosome structures are at the same time instrumental in bringing about the development they foreshadow. They are code law and executive power, or to use another simile, they are the architect’s plan and the builder’s craft in one.’ [Schrödinger, p. 20,]. What Schrödinger is saying here is that the chromosomes not only contain a description of the future organism, but also the means to implement the description, or program, as we might call it. And that is wrong! The chromosomes contain the information to specify the future organism and a description of the means to implement this, but not the means themselves. This logical difference was made crystal clear to me when I read the von Neumann article [Hixon Symposium] because he very clearly distinguishes between the things that read the program and the program itself. In other words, the program has to build the machinery to excute itself" (Brenner, My Life, 33-34).

Foundation of ethology, the scientific study of animal behavior. "It was based on a series of six lectures at Columbia University in 1947 and presented a general model of animal behavior. Basically, it was about methodology, about behavior as an outcome of conflicting 'drives,' about the hierarchical organization of behavior as a hierarchy of nervous centers, and about communication between animals" (Larry W. Swanson). 

Watson and Crick shared the Nobel Prize with M. H. F. Wilkins (No. 256.4) "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." Later they proposed how DNA might explain the chemical mechanism by which cells passed on their character accurately. See No. 7138.

The journal Nature later published an "early draft" of the Watson & Crick paper with differing text and extensive explanatory annotations. It is available from exploratorium.edu at this link.

In this paper published on May 30, 1953 Watson and Crick proposed the method of replication of DNA. This discovery has been called as significant, or possibly even more significant, than their discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA published in April 1953. 

Reeves demonstrated that mosquitoes detect their prey by sensing the carbon dioxide that animals exhale. (It was later shown that some mosquitoes can detect their prey from more than 165 feet away.)

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

Lysosomes. With B. C. Pressman, R. Gianetto, R. Wattiaux and F. Appelmans.

The so-called Meselson-Stahl experiment, the first proof of semi-conservative replication of DNA. Semi-conservative replication describes the mechanism of DNA replication in all known cells. It derives its name from the production of two copies of the original DNA molecule, each of which contains one original strand, and one newly-synthesized strand. Digital facsimile from pnas.org at this link.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Stanier, Niel. For much of the 20th centurty prokaryotes were regarded as a single group of organisms, classified on the basis of their biochemistry, morphology and metabolism. In this paper the authors established the division between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, defining prokaryotes as organisms lacking a cell nucleus.

Loeb Classic Library. 

http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/"

"Search over 12000 letters and articles..."

Integration of biological and evolutionary theory with the study of social behavior and social organization of animal populations.

Includes the correspondence and previously unpublished manuscripts. A description of this set is available from the publisher at this link.

This is an ongoing project with many volumes and many editors and several publishers. The number of volumes already published, and planned volumes was unclear in May 2017 when I wrote this entry. Further information is available from vallisneri.it at this link.

Cloning of the lamb Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. Her birth established that the nuclei of at least some adult cells can be used to produce sheep or other animals that are genetically identical to the donor, when transferred into eggs from which the genetic material has been removed. Wilmut led the team that created Dolly but credits his colleague Keith Campbell with "66 percent" of the invention that made Dolly's birth possible. Co-authored by A. E. Schnieke, J. McWhire, and A. J. Kind.

Initial draft sequence of the human genome from the publically financed project, involving the coordinated efforts of 20 laboratories and hundreds of people around the world. The full text is available from Nature at this link.

Nature reprinted the paper in hardcover with supplementary material as Carina Davis & Richard Gallagher (eds.)  The Human Genome. Foreward by James D. Watson. (Houndgroves, Basingbroke, Hampshire, England & New York: Palgrave, 2001.)

Initial draft sequence of the human genome by Venter and the staff at Celera Genomics. The full text is available from Science at this link.

http://darwin-online.org.uk/AboutUs.html

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Critical edition based on a collation of the 26 known extant manuscripts and a study of the early Latin translations. Begun by Balme in 1975, with his work towards the Loeb editio minor of books VII–X, this edition includes all ten books, including a very full apparatus criticus. Volume I of the edition contains the complete text of the Historia Animalium, the critical apparatus, and Balme's introduction to the manuscripts, expanded and updated with the assistance of Friederike Berger, and in consultation with the editors of forthcoming editions of the extant medieval translations. 

A "technical book on macroevolution and the historical development of evolutionary theory.^[1] The book was twenty years in the making,^[2]published just two months before Gould's death.^[3] Aimed primarily at professionals,^[4] the volume is divided into two parts. The first is a historical study of classical evolutionary thought, drawing extensively upon primary documents; the second is a constructive critique of the modern evolutionary synthesis, and presents a case for an interpretation of biological evolution based largely on hierarchical selection, and the theory of punctuated equilibrium (developed by Niles Eldredge and Gould in 1972).^{[5]" (Wikipedia article on The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, accessed 03-2017).}

Order of authorship in the original publication: Carey, Wang, ... Carlson. The authors showed that besides CO2, the odorant receptors in the malaria mosquistoes Anopheles gambiae are sensitive to other "mostly sweat" organic compounds like "1-octen-3-ol", which is very common in human and animal odor. These receptors play a central role in human recognition in the human host-seeking behavior of these mosquitoes.

Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)

http://wallace-online.org/

"Wallace Online is the first complete edition of the writings of naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, including the first compilation of his specimens. The project is directed by John van Wyhe, assisted by Kees Rookmaaker, at the National University of Singapore, in collaboration with the Wallace Page by Charles H. Smith.

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