The article presents the history of the development of comparative anatomy, starting with the works of Aristotle and up to the 30s of the 20th century. It is shown that the anatomy of animals was studied by natural philosophers of ancient Greece, and especially by Aristotle. Step by step, we are convinced that each of these scientists became a part of comparative anatomy, made his contribution at a certain stage of the development of this science. So, for example, Georges Cuvier raised comparative anatomy to the level of an independent science. The article notes the echo of evolutionary ideas in the morphology of animals. Special attention is paid to Aristotle, J. Buffon, J. Cuvier, O. M. Severtsov, I. I. Schmalhausen, M. M. Voskoboynikova.

Yes, it was in the Kyiv Society of Nature Explorers O. M. Severtsov presented his first works, which deal with general problems of morphology. 1908 was especially successful for him. The scientist himself considered it the beginning of a fruitful period in his scientific activity. Having at that time enough morphological material on the evolution of various systems of vertebrate organs, O. M. Severtsov sought to analyze it in a way that no morphologist had done before him. He decided to approach the study of regularities in the evolution of living forms on the basis of phylogeny data. Of course, this problem was very broad. However, he boldly undertook its solution and already published his first results in the work "Studies on the Theory of Evolution" (1912). In it, he deeply criticizes the biogenetic law and for the first time sets out his views on the relationship between ontogeny and phylogeny. Subsequently, he developed them into a broad rationale, known today as the "theory of phyllembryogenesis".

The article defends two main provisions. The first is that the comparative anatomy of vertebrates is not just one of many biological disciplines, it is one of the philosophical foundations of the modern theory of evolution. That is precisely why she got into the center of evolutionary debates initiated by supporters of the Darwinian orientation both in the world and in Ukraine. The second proposition is that the data of the classical triad: comparative anatomy, paleontology, and comparative embryology, whose research programs contribute to the development of the modern synthetic theory of evolution, are best suited to describe the dynamics of the development of evolutionary theory, starting with Charles Darwin.

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