100 years of Rupert Riedl:

Rupert Riedl (1925 – 2005) was a visionary zoologist and marine biologist who made pioneering contributions to underwater exploration and invertebrate biology (e.g. Gnathostomulidae).
During his time as Kenan Professor of Zoology at the University of North Carolina he was confronted with the then dominant theory of evolution, the so-called synthetic theory of evolution, which he perceived as incomplete. In response he developed an alternative view called the systems approach to evolution articulated in his 1975 book Die Ordnung des Lebendigen (Engl. 1978). In it, Riedl anticipated many of the later developments in what is now called Evolutionary Developmental Biology, including the notion of developmental constraints and evolvability.
In this symposium we want to take stock where organismal evolutionary biology stands and how Riedl’s ideas are holding up.