Concept

Morphology (biology)

Overview

In biology, morphology is the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features.

This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape, structure, color, pattern, size), as well as the form and structure of internal parts like bones and organs, i.e., anatomy. This is in contrast to physiology, which deals primarily with function. Morphology is a branch of life science dealing with the study of the overall structure of an organism or taxon and its component parts.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

1. We may recall from what we know of the morphology of groups that it is possible to distinguish very different kinds of groups and opposing lines in their development. There are very fleeting groups and extremely lasting ones; homogeneous ones, made up of the same sorts of individuals, and unhomogeneous ones; natural groups, and artificial ones, requiring an external force to keep…

   Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and The Analysis of The Ego

   Opens on Morphology; names Morphology.

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2. Interpretation of the structures of individual organisms and successions of organisms, is aided by two subsidiary divisions of biologic inquiry, named Comparative Anatomy (properly Comparative Morphology) and Comparative Embryology. These cannot be regarded as in themselves parts of Biology; since the facts embraced under them are not substantive phenomena, but are simply incidental to substantive phenomena.

   Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology, Volume 1

   Names Morphology several times; opens on Morphology.

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3. One of the most important considerations connected with morphology, so far as it relates to surfaces, is this, that even in quadrupeds the spots of the skin have a relation with the parts underneath them. Capriciously as nature here appears, on a hasty examination, to operate, she nevertheless consistently observes a secret law.

   Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's Theory of Colours

   Opens on Morphology; names Morphology.

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Related ideas

• Ancient Greek
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Molecule
• Organism
• Species
• Physiology
• Complex system
• Anatomy
• Etymology
• Biology
• Ernst Haeckel

Opposing perspectives

• Jaguar

Place in the tradition

Part of German philosophy.

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