  The decisive role of Embryology in understanding the evolution of animal
forms is founded and deeply rooted in the history of science. It is recognized
that the emergence of multicellularity would not have been possible without the
formation of the first embryo. We speculate that biophysical phenomena and the
surrounding environment of the Ediacaran ocean were instrumental in co-opting a
neoplastic functional module (NFM) within the nucleus of the first zygote.
Thus, the neoplastic process, understood here as a biological phenomenon with
profound embryologic implications, served as the evolutionary engine that
favored the formation of the first embryo and cancerous diseases and allowed to
coherently create and recreate body shapes in different animal groups during
evolution. In this article, we provide a deep reflection on the Physics of the
first embryogenesis and its contribution to the exaptation of additional NFM
components, such as the extracellular matrix. Knowledge of NFM components,
structure, dynamics, and origin advances our understanding of the numerous
possibilities and different innovations that embryos have undergone to create
animal forms via Neoplasia during evolutionary radiation. The developmental
pathways of Neoplasia have their origins in ctenophores and were consolidated
in mammals and other apical groups.
