"By whom" probably not appropriate in the middle of the quote

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In the introduction, there is a quote:

"The assembly of these tissues and functions into an integrated multicellular organism yields not only the characteristics of the separate parts and processes but also quite a new set of characteristics which would not have been predictable[by whom?] on the basis of examination of the separate parts."

I think it would be reasonable to assume the, "By whom," is mistaken and should be removed.

It isn't weasel words here: the statement is simply phrased in the traditional passive voice often used in scientific writing. On that reading, it means, rephrased in non-passive terms, "We [botanists] could not have predicted the properties of the whole organism by examining the pieces." The "whom" is correctly contained in the statement, if the statement is read according to its technical conventions. FloweringOctopus (talk) 20:54, 1 March 2023 (UTC)Reply

Inaccurate account of animal development in introduction

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"By contrast, an animal embryo will very early produce all of the body parts that it will ever have in its life. When the animal is born (or hatches from its egg), it has all its body parts and from that point will only grow larger and more mature."

This is clearly not true in animals that undergo metamorphosis, perhaps the most familiar example being holometabolous insects. 140.233.90.86 (talk) 19:58, 10 July 2024 (UTC)Reply