Partial Metamorphosis in Anomia simplex

Abstract

Many larvae of the common bivalve, Anomia simplex, when grown under laboratory conditions, exhibited a partial metamorphosis. They attained a considerably larger size than that at which larvae normally set. The partial metamorphosis was also characterized by the disappearance of velum, but the retention of a functional foot. Moreover, these organisms were not able to attach to the substratum, and their shells showed a distinct demarcation line between larval and adult portions