kenogenesis Biol.
(kiːnəʊˈdʒɛnɪsɪs)
[irreg. for cæno- or kainogenesis, f. Gr. καινός new + γένεσις genesis.]
Haeckel's term for the form of ontogenesis in which the true hereditary development of a germ is modified by features derived from its environment (opposed to palingenesis). Hence kenogeˈnetic a.
| 1879 tr. Haeckel's Evol. Man I. i. 10 The term Kenogenetic process (or vitiation of the history of the germ) is applied to all such processes of the germ-history as are not to be explained by heredity from primaeval parent-forms. Ibid. 11 This distinction between Palingenesis or inherited evolution, and Kenogenesis or vitiated evolution, has not..yet been sufficiently appreciated by naturalists. |