In the other classes of Arthropoda we have more or less complete embryological evidence on the subject.
Chun and Woltereck, on the other hand, regard the stem as a stolo prolifer arising from the aboral pole, that is to say, from the ex-umbrella, similar to that which grows out from the ex-umbral surface of the embryo of the Narcomedusae and produces buds, a view which is certainly supported by the embryological evidence to be adduced shortly.
It must be pointed out that, however probable Haeckel's theory may be in other respects, there is not the slightest evidence for any such cleft in the umbrella having been present at any time, and that the embryological evidence, as already pointed out, is all against any homology between the stem and a manubrium, since the primary siphon does not become the stem, which arises from the ex-umbral side of the protocodon and is strictly comparable to a stolon.
Cuvier on anatomical, and Von Baer on embryological grounds, made the further step of proving that, even in this limited sense, animals cannot be arranged in a single series, but that there are several distinct plans of organization to be observed among them, no one of which, in its highest and most complicated modification, leads to any of the others.
The thirty years which followed the publication of the Origin of Species were characterized chiefly by anatomical and embryological work; since then there has been no diminution in anatomical and embryological enthusiasm, but many of the continually increasing body of investigators have turned again to bionomical work.