The understanding of how gene products interact in networks and with the epigenetic context to coordinate spatio-temporaly development remains as one of the main challenges of developmental biology. On the other hand how these developmental mechanisms have appeared in evolution is still largely unkown. As a product of evolution developmental mechanisms can not be expected to proceed in an especially efficient or "optimally design way". But it seems difficult to understand the evolution of development if we do not understand development while on the other hand development can not be understood without understanding its evolution. In here we present a series of studies that suggest that there is a limited number of possible developmental mechanisms capable of pattern formation. Those basic developmental mechanisms are reported and its dynamics explained. This provides the oportunity to make predictions about evo-devo that are not possible from the current neo-Darwinian paradigm. Those predictions concern the relative use of those in different evolutionary and developmental contexts and consequently on the structure of development and phenotype.
