The Department of Animal Developmental Dynamics was founded in 1971, within the newly established Institute of Zoology, with Professor Frederika Mikulić as its first head. The work of the Department is based on significant achievements in the field of research into various aspects of animal developmental biology. Since 1978, the Department has been headed by Prof. Dr. Jelena Radovanović, from 2000 to 2014 by Prof. Dr. Božidar Ćurčić, and since 2014, the function of the Head of the Department has been performed by Prof. Dr. Slobodan Makarov.

Today, within the Department of Animal Developmental Dynamics, theoretical and practical teaching is held in 27 subjects at all levels of study: basic academic studies, master's and doctoral studies. Currently, the teachers at the Department are: full professors Slobodan Makarov and Luka Lučić, associate professors Vladimir Tomić and Bojan Mitić, and assistant professors Boris Dudić, Dragan Antic and Bojan Ilić. The members of the Department are also research associates Dalibor Stojanović and Zvezdana Jovanović and research trainees Jelena Milovanović and Mirko Šević.

During its decades-long existence, the subjects of study at the Department of Animal Developmental Dynamics have been the relationships between ontogeny and phylogeny, postembryogenesis and comparative morphology of invertebrates, and teratological phenomena of complex developmental systems. Scientific work was later expanded to include semiochemical, behavioral, evolutionary-biogeographical, and biospeleological research on selected groups of arthropods. Members of the Department collaborate with numerous experts from other domestic and foreign scientific institutions.