A renewed attempt to bring about a synthesis of developmental and evolutionary biology in order to understand: (1) the evolution of ontogenetic development, and 2. how developmental processes or rather epigenetics (as well as morphological processes) constrain or facilitate phenotypical evolution. In addition to evolutionary developmental biology (a), there is also developmental evolutionary biology (b). At present, it unclear what are the differences between them, but it could be that (a) is more aligned with 1. and (b) with 2. A third attempt at building a new synthesis between the two biologies is called dynamical systems theory, which places less emphasis on genetic factors. It remains to be seen if and how evolutionary developmental biology can offer a coherent resolution to the major problem that has faced the Modern synthesis: how mutations and changes in gene frequencies (microevolution) translate into changes in the forms of living organisms (macroevolution).
See Adaptation, Baldwin effect, Biological evolution, Child development, Developmental biology, Diachronic biology, Dynamical systems theory (development and evolution), Epigenetics, Evolutionary biology, Genetic assimilation, Jacob-Monod operon model, Macroevolution (horizontal evolution) and microevolution (or vertical evolution), Modern synthesis, Mutation (biology)