p-ter points out that selection of model organisms can shape the path of scientific research because of the very nature of model organisms. Normative considerations in science are pretty obvious when you look at the set of disciplines; there's a whole field of biological anthropology which studies one species. There is the rather well known case that doctoral research arcs are constrained to a relatively short period, which resulted in a focus short-lived organisms in zoological studies. Imagine trying to write up grant applications focusing on the life history of the tortoise.
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Indeed, the short generation time of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) seems to have required a unique method of body axis determination and segmentation (simultaneous specification of segments rather than sequential) that is evolutionarily speaking a rather recent development unique to Dipterans (flies), not present in other arthropods. So even though the discovery of this body axis specification mechanism was a huge discovery for developmental biology, it is in some ways an artifact of having chosen a model organism for its 10-day generation time!