Editing Neoteny (section)

== History and etymology ==

[[File:Heterochrony.svg|thumb|upright=2|Diagram of the six types of shift in [[heterochrony]], a change in the timing or rate of any process in [[embryonic development]]. Predisplacement, hypermorphosis, and acceleration (red) extend development ([[peramorphosis]]); postdisplacement, hypomorphosis, and deceleration (blue) all truncate it (paedomorphosis).]]

[[Julius Kollmann]] created the term "neoteny" in 1885 after he described the [[axolotl]]'s maturation while remaining in a [[tadpole]]-like aquatic stage complete with gills, unlike other adult [[amphibians]] like frogs and toads.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kollmann |first=J. |title=Das Ueberwintern von europäischen Frosch- und Tritonlarven und die Umwandlung des mexikanischen Axolotl |journal=Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Basel (Proceedings of the Natural Science Society of Basel) |date=1885 |volume=7 |pages=387–398 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/42693#page/397/mode/1up |trans-title=The overwintering of European frog- and triton larvae and the transformation of the Mexican axolotl |language=German}} From pp. 397–398: ''"Dann drängt sich die Frage auf, ob das Latenzstadium der Eier, das einerseits bei Fischen, Vögeln and Säugethieren in so höchst überraschenden Formen vorkommt, anderseits das Latenzstadium bei den Wirbellosen ¹) nicht eine Variante derselben Eigenschaft der Organismen sei, welche ich Neotenie genannt habe, und die auf irgend einer Entwichlungsstufe in Kraft treten kann."'' (Then the question arises whether on the one hand the latency stage of eggs — which occurs in such highly surprising forms in fish, birds and mammals — [and] on the other hand the latency stage in invertebrates ¹) be not a variant of the same property of the organisms, which I have called "neoteny" and which can come into force at any stage of development.)</ref><ref name="Bogin1999">{{cite book |last=Bogin |first=Barry |title=Patterns of Human Growth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ScfPjwF3BngC&pg=PA158 |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-56438-0 |pages=157–169}}</ref>

The word ''neoteny'' is borrowed from the [[German language|German]] ''Neotenie'', the latter constructed by Kollmann from the [[Greek language|Greek]] νέος (''neos'', "young") and τείνειν (''teínein'', "to stretch, to extend"). The [[adjective]] is either "neotenic" or "neotenous".<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/neoteny Neoteny], ''The Free Dictionary''. 2011. Accessed April 30, 2011.</ref> For the opposite of "neotenic", different authorities use either "gerontomorphic"<ref name="Henke">Henke, W. (2007). Handbook of paleoanthropology, Volume 1. Springer Books, NY.</ref><ref name="Hether">Hetherington, R. (2010). The Climate Connection: Climate Change and Modern Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press.</ref> or "[[peramorphosis|peramorphic]]".<ref name="Hall">Hall, B.K., Hallgrímsson, B. Monroe, W.S. (2008). Strickberger's evolution: the integration of genes, organisms and populations. Jones and Bartlett Publishers: Canada.</ref> Bogin points out that Kollmann had intended the meaning to be "retaining youth", but had evidently confused the Greek ''teínein'' with the Latin ''tenere'', which had the meaning he wanted, "to retain", so that the new word would mean "the retaining of youth (into adulthood)".<ref name="Bogin1999" />

In 1926, [[Louis Bolk]] described neoteny as the major process in humanization.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bolk |first=Louis |title=Das Problem der Menschwerdung : Vortrag gehalten am 15. April 1926 auf der XXV. Versammlung der anatomischen Gesellschaft zu Freiburg |trans-title=The Problem of Humanization: Lecture held on 15 April 1926 at the 25th Congress of the Anatomical Society at Freiberg |date=1926 |publisher=Gustav Fischer |location=Jena, Germany |language=German}}</ref><ref name="Bogin1999" /> In his 1977 book ''[[Ontogeny and Phylogeny]]'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gould |first1=Stephen Jay |title=Ontogeny and Phylogeny |date=1977 |publisher=Belknap (Harvard University Press) |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-63940-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/ontogenyphylogen00goul }}</ref> [[Stephen Jay Gould]] noted that Bolk's account constituted an attempted justification for "scientific" racism and sexism, but acknowledged that Bolk had been right in the core idea that humans differ from other [[primates]] in becoming sexually mature in an infantile stage of body development.<ref name="Bogin1999" />