Ontogeny is the unfolding of coupled developmental mechanisms whose parameters are largely specified by the genome. We hardly understand when and whether such mechanisms give rise to a few forms robustly or a plethora of forms each requiring the most delicate genetic balance among the control parameters. If robust flow into one or a few morphologies, governed by parameters easily held in vast volumes of parameter space, is the norm when many mechanisms are coupled, then robust morphogenesis could be the norm as well. Robustness may flow from complexity itself.

The evolution of the cell can be regarded as the ‘big bang’ of biological evolution even though it took a very long time. The origin of embryonic development from cells can be regarded as the ‘little bang’ since the cell was already there.