Background: Pedomorphism is the retention of ancestrally juvenile traits
by adults in a descendant taxon. Despite its importance for evolutionary change,
there are few examples of a molecular basis for this phenomenon. Notothenioids
represent one of the best described species flocks among marine fishes, but their
diversity is currently ... read morethreatened by the rapidly changing Antarctic climate.
Notothenioid evolutionary history is characterized by parallel radiations from a
benthic ancestor to pelagic predators, which was accompanied by the appearance of
several pedomorphic traits, including the reduction of skeletal mineralization that
resulted in increased buoyancy.
Albertson, R, Yi-Lin Yan, Tom A. Titus, Eva Pisano, Marino
Vacchi, Pamela C. Yelick, H. William Detrich, and John H. Postlethwait. "Molecular
pedomorphism underlies craniofacial skeletal evolution in Antarctic notothenioid
fishes." BMC Evolutionary Biology 10, no. 1 (12, 2010):
1-12.