The danger of wikipedia

[waterspyder]

Misinformation... it ranks as a top pet peeve of mine.

It started as a slight quirk whenever I saw paedomorphy or neoteny used to describe an animal's behaviour. Problem: These two words describe physical characteristics only.

After seeing these terms used erroneously, I went to go check the parent articles and oh sweet jesus were they wrong. Close, but wrong.

I understand that these concepts in the field of developmental biology, while similar and related, aren't the same and never, ever, ever deal with anything other than physiological differences.

Heterochrony: something developing at a rate different than that of its ancestor.

Paedomorphy: an organism that retains the appearance of being physically juvenile.

Neoteny: the delay or slowing of an organism from attaining its ancestral adult form. A mechanism of paedomorphy.

Progenesis: the arrest of development of an organism before achieving the ancestral adult form. These organisms achieve sexual maturity in a juvenile or larval stage, sometimes still in utero. A mechanism of paedomorphy.

finally,

Paedogenesis: that actual reproduction by organisms in its juvenile or larval state, sometimes occurring still in utero.

Questions?


... I hate being obsessive about misinformation ...

Comments

[zenten.livejournal.com]

This is why wikipedia needs you dear. *kiss*

[purplezart.livejournal.com]

so can mammals be neotenous? because it sounds like you're talking about insects.

[oni-neko.livejournal.com]

I suspect so. hence the juvenile or larval stage and the use of the words in utero.

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

yes, but usually referred to in the sense of having "neotenies", specific delayed traits. Like hairlessness.

[corradus.livejournal.com]

Very well done.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who once spent an hour and a half debugging one of those "fun facts--did you know?" e-mails[1] with several decent dictionaries and the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (or something to that effect, can't remember what they gave us), I appreciate you being obsessive about misinformation, and sympathize with the time it eats up.

Plus, the words are very very cool and may need to be applied to dragons and jackalopes.
---
[1] If anyone, anywhere, ever again attempts to maintain that the term "trenchmouth" comes from the Middle Ages convention of eating food off of 'trenchers' of bread, which became wormy and thus resulted in getting the condition from eating contaminated food, I am going to belt them with the largest illustrated history of twentieth-century warfare I can find. Metaphorically, of course.