User:Papermoth/sandbox
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Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some insects, fishes, amphibians, molluscs, crustaceans, cnidarians, echinoderms and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is often accompanied by a change of nutrition source or behavior. Animals can be divided into species that undergo complete metamorphosis ("holometaboly"), incomplete metamorphosis ("hemimataboly"), or no metamorphosis ("ametaboly").
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Regardless of the species in which it is taking place, the process of metamorphosis implies several universal events[1]:
• destruction of specifically larval structures (abdominal legs of caterpillars, gills and tail of tadpoles),
• adaptive remodelling of tissues that persist in the adult stage (nervous system, excretory organs),
• development of structures unique to adults (wings in insects, lungs in amphibians).
Scientific usage of the term is technically precise, and is not applied to general aspects of cell growth, including rapid growth spurts. References to "metamorphosis" in mammals are imprecise and only colloquial, but historically idealist ideas of transformation and monadology, as in Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants, have influenced the development of ideas of evolution.