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An axolotl is a salamander that remains in its larval form throughout its life, while most salamanders go through a metamorphosis during sexual maturity, so it’
by crazydoggers 1y ago
An axolotl is a salamander that remains in its larval form throughout its life, while most salamanders go through a metamorphosis during sexual maturity, so it’s not surprising it retains embryonic growth capabilities.
There’s actually a theory that hominid ancestors at some point split off from other great apes by also not going through the typical great ape sexual maturity. For examples humans look a lot more like juvenile chimps that we do sexually mature chimps.
- crooked-v 1y agoMy theory would be that neoteny goes hand-in-hand with the traits of domestication (social friendliness, high tolerance of strangers, etc), and that humans are effectively self-domesticated.
- airstrike 1y agoSome of this is alluded to in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny_in_humans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny_in_humans which is a fascinating read, as is this very thread. Thanks for the food for thought!
- tmtvl 1y agoI believe there's also a hypothesis that our ancestry back to the Devonian or Cambrian was based on neoteny/paedomorphism where a particular creature living on the sea floor, when in the infant stage, has a limb for propulsion which it loses when it finds a nice spot to settle. Our very distant ancestors didn't lose those limbs and evolved into the distant precursors to placaderms, bony fish, and, well, terrestrial fauna.