What is a Paedomorphic species?
What is a Paedomorphic species?
Abstract. Paedomorphosis is an alternative process to metamorphosis in which adults retain larval traits at the adult stage. It is frequent in newts and salamanders, where larvae reach sexual maturity without losing their gills. However, in some populations, larvae overwinter in water, while remaining immature.
Are humans Paedomorphic?
It has been proposed that some of the differences between bonobos and chimpanzees (and, in fact, humans and other apes [5]), can be explained by paedomorphism — the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood.
What is paedomorphosis in evolution?
paedomorphosis The evolutionary process in which larval or juvenile features of an ancestral organism are displaced to the adult forms of its descendants. It can arise by neoteny or progenesis.
Are amphibians Paedomorphic?
Paedomorphosis, common in amphibians, is where adults of a species retain characters found in the larvae of their ancestors. This can occur when development is slowed, giving rise to a sexually mature juvenile — neoteny.
Are crested newts Paedomorphic?
For example, great crested newt (Triturus cristatus), palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus), alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris) and southern banded newt (Omatotriton vittatus) all exhibit paedomorphosis, especially in the south of their range (Oromi et al., 2014).
What causes paedomorphosis?
Paedomorphosis is the result of neoteny. This occurs due to the retention of juvenile traits into the adult form, which results in retention of somatic development or progenesis, it increases the development process and the juvenile form becomes a sexually mature adult.
What is a neotenous face?
These “neotenous” characteristics include a large forehead with lower set eyes, nose and mouth; a smaller, shorter, more recessive chin; fuller lips; larger eyes; a smaller nose; higher, thinner eyebrows; and a rounder, less angular face.
What is Progensis?
Medical Definition of progenesis : precocious sexual reproduction in a trematode worm in which metacercariae or sometimes cercariae may lay eggs capable of repeating the life cycle.
What does Paedomorphism mean?
Definition of paedomorphism : retention in the adult of infantile or juvenile characters.
What is the significance of paedomorphosis?
Such shifts of reproductive capability would appear to have adaptive significance to organisms that exhibit it. In terms of evolutionary theory, the process of paedomorphosis suggests that larval stages and developmental phases of existing organisms may give rise, under certain circumstances, to wholly new organisms.
What is the difference between neoteny and paedomorphosis?
Paedomorphosis and neoteny represent two qualitatively different phenomena: neoteny is an adaptive modification of ontogeny, whereas paedomorphosis is its transformation in the course of evolution.
What is the difference between paedomorphosis and Peramorphosis?
Paedomorphosis describes the retention of juvenile traits in a structure (the trait in the descendant resembles that of juveniles in the ancestor). Peramorphosis describes cases where a trait in the descendant has a more extreme morphology than in its ancestor.
What does paedomorphic mean?
What does paedomorphic mean? Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word paedomorphic. Of, relating to, or resulting from the retention of juvenile characteristics by an adult. How to pronounce paedomorphic?
What is the evolutionary significance of paedomorphosis?
Such shifts of reproductive capability would appear to have adaptive significance to organisms that exhibit it. In terms of evolutionary theory, the process of paedomorphosis suggests that larval stages and developmental phases of existing organisms may give rise, under certain circumstances, to wholly new organisms.
Are paedomorphic salamanders still capable of metamorphosis?
While evolutionary theory typically considers the paedomorphic status as fixed once attained (e.g., Gould, 1977), more recent observations indicate that paedomorphic salamanders are still capable of metamorphosis (Winne and Ryan, 2001).