The direct cost of amphibian metamorphosis: insights from body weight loss in facultative paedomorphs
Mathieu Denoël, Anthony G E Mathiron, Sarah Baouch, Jean-Paul Lena · 2026
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Description
Mathieu Denoël and co-authors weigh newts to measure the direct cost of metamorphosis. Many amphibians rebuild their bodies to leave the water, but some species can also breed while staying in larval form, a shortcut called paedomorphosis. Which path wins in evolution depends partly on what the change itself costs. Their 2026 study follows palmate newts through a controlled experiment.
The team varied the conditions that push newts to transform and tracked weight over time. Newts that metamorphosed lost body weight, while those that stayed in larval form did not. Warmth played a smaller role than the change itself. Females paid more than males, and eating less during the change explained much of the loss. The authors say such direct costs belong in any account of why metamorphosis evolves or is lost.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Mathieu Denoël, Anthony G E Mathiron, Sarah Baouch, Jean-Paul Lena |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 53 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |