paedomorphy

alternative pedomorphy

1. uncountableThe retention or emergence of juvenile characteristics in an adult organism.

   Richard Wrangham has noted that the domestication of animals usually tames them by slowing down components of the developmental timetable to retain juvenile traits into adulthood, a process called pedomorphy or neoteny.

   2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 744

   1 more example

   The clade 4-1 salamanders recently lived in environments that would make paedomorphy unlikely, but now even when they are living in large, permanent ponds that induce paedomorphy in clade 4-2 salamanders, they are incapable of becoming paedomorphs.

   2006, Alan R Templeton, Population Genetics and Microevolutionary Theory, page 481

   Synonyms: neoteny, paedomorphism, paedomorphosis