Able to metamorphose
Metamorphosis is when a species changes body shape and structure at a particular point in its life cycle, such as when a tadpole turns into a frog. Sometimes, in locusts for example, the juvenile form is quite similar to the adult one. In others, they are radically different, and unrecognisable as the same species. The different forms may even entail a completely new lifestyle or habitat, such as when a ground-bound, leaf-eating caterpillar turns into a long distance flying, nectar-eating butterfly.
Watch video clips from past programmes (3 clips)
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17 year swarm
Cabbage white emergence
Life in the Undergrowth
Timelapse details the emergence of a butterfly from its chrysalis.
Periodical cicadas Featured in the following TV programmes
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Archived
Life in the Undergrowth: TAKING TO THE AIR
From the stunning aerobatics of hoverflies to the mass migration of purple crow butterflies this film tells the story of the winged insects.
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Archived
Planet Earth: Seasonal Forests
David Attenborough reveals the greatest woodlands on earth.
Species with this adaptation
Amphibians
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Common toad
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Darwin's frog
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Venezuela pebble toad
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Chinese giant salamander
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Great crested newt
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Japanese giant salamander
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Siberian salamander
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Texas blind salamander
Insects
Common wasp 
European honey bee 
Scottish wood ant 
Great diving beetle 
Harlequin ladybird 
High brown fritillary 
Large blue butterfly 
Purple emperor butterfly 
Banded demoiselle 
Tisza mayfly About
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, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, Cnidarians, echinoderms and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is usually (but not always) accompanied by a change of habitat or behavior.
Scientific usage of the term is exclusive, 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, influenced the development of ideas of evolution.
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Other Development Adaptations
- Able to metamorphose
- Helpless at birth
- Precocial
Elsewhere on the web
- Metamorphosis (wikipedia.org)
Site links
BBC links
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