Heterochrony: It's (all) about time!

Heterochrony—variation in the rate or timing of developmental processes or events over evolutionary time—plays an important role in the study of evolutionary developmental biology. I review the historical background of heterochrony, and highlight examples of how both physical structure and behavior are influenced by changes in the rate of development. I also describe neurogenetic models of evolution and development, which have been used to investigate heterochronic mechanisms of change. To help illustrate how epigenetic robotics complements the use of neurogenetic models, I propose two research questions for epigenetic robotics that focus on evolutionary changes in developmental timing.

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