Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, embryon, 'the unborn, embryo'; and -λογία, -logia) is the branch of zoology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos and fetuses. Embryology includes teratology, the study of congenital disorders that occur before birth.
Early embryology was proposed by Marcello Malpighi, and known as preformationism, the theory that organisms develop from pre-existing miniature versions of themselves. Aristotle proposed the now-accepted theory of epigenesis, the idea that organisms develop from seed or egg in a sequence of steps. Modern embryology developed from the work of Karl Ernst von Baer, though accurate observations had been made in Italy by anatomists such as Aldrovandi and Leonardo da Vinci in the Renaissance.
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