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n. Retention of juvenile characteristics in the adults of a species, as among certain amphibians.

n. The attainment of sexual maturity by an organism still in its larval stage.

n. The retention of juvenile characteristics in the adult.

n. The sexual maturity of an organism still in its larval stage.

n. In biology: The reversion of a phylum to a modified embryonic condition.

n. The retention by an organism of larval or juvenile characters beyond the time characteristic of other members of the group to which it belongs. This may be partial, as in the case of some toads and frogs, whose young pass the winter in the tadpole condition, or total, as in some salamanders that retain their external gills when adult. Also neotenia.

n. an evolutionary trend to be born earlier so that development is cut off at an earlier stage and juvenile characteristics are retained in adults of the species

"Humans, especially females, are likewise evolutionarily wired to respond in a nurturing way to faces that have a quality of neoteny, which is to say, the retention of infantile characteristics: large head, wide and prominent eyes, slightly helpless and winsome."

evolutionary trend   

neotenous    neotenic   

pedomorphism   

botany    monotony    paleobotany