Abstract—Dedifferentiation, paedomorphosis, and the insertion and deletion of developmental stages make it impossible to deduce the genealogical hierarchy from only ontogenetic transformation series. Like the outgroup criterion, ontogenetic character precedence is not theory‐neutral and to use it to deduce genealogy requires certain assumptions.If scientists are going to use logically unbeatable theories about the world, they might as well give up natural science and take up religion (Lewontin, 1972: 1