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How did Louis Agassiz interpret similarities in the anatomy of different organisms?
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Louis Agassiz
An undated engraving of Louis Agassiz.
Louis Agassiz interpreted anatomical similarities, or homologies, not as evidence of evolutionary descent, but as "associations of ideas in the Divine Mind".1
Rooted in a philosophy derived from Plato, Agassiz believed that each species was a distinct "thought of God" created through independent acts of special creation. Consequently, he rejected the idea of hereditary continuity between different types of organisms, maintaining that the organic world reflected a divine plan rather than the result of interactions between populations and their environments.1