Paedomorphy
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The retention or emergence of juvenile characteristics in an adult organism. uncountable
"The clade 4-1 salamanders recently lived in environments that would make paedomorphy unlikely, but now even when they are living in large, permanent ponds that induce paedomorphy in clade 4-2 salamanders, they are incapable of becoming paedomorphs."
Example
More examples"The clade 4-1 salamanders recently lived in environments that would make paedomorphy unlikely, but now even when they are living in large, permanent ponds that induce paedomorphy in clade 4-2 salamanders, they are incapable of becoming paedomorphs."
Etymology
From paedo- + -morphy, after paedomorphic.
More for "paedomorphy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.