Definition of Bauplan
plural Bauplans
or Baupläne
play
\ˈbau̇-ˌplā-nə\
or bauplans
or baupläne
biology
: the generalized structural body plan that characterizes a group of organisms and especially a major taxon (such as a phylum)
- All feline species have inherited the unique Bauplan of cats, and cannot deviate from this commonality as they adapt, each in its own particular way.
- —Stephen Jay Gould, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, 2002
- The results of this study demonstrate that in chelonians, as in mammals and birds, features characteristic of an apparently discrete and highly integrated Bauplan were accumulated gradually and in a precise order.
- —Michael S. Y. Lee, Science, 24 Sept. 1993
- But nobody, and I mean nobody, thinks that evolution has ever been jumpy enough to invent a whole new bauplan in one step.
- —Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden, 1995
- The entire organism encompasses a definable bauplan, and the specific organ systems themselves also encompass describable bauplans; in both cases the structural and functional components of the particular plan establish both capabilities and limits.
- —Richard C. Brusca and Gary J. Brusca, Invertebrates, 2nd edition, 2003
