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metamorphosesmore about metamorphoses

metamorphoses


  1  definition  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Metamorphosis  \Met`a*mor"pho*sis\,  n.;  pl  {Metamorphoses}.  [L., 
  fr  Gr  ?,  fr  ?  to  be  transformed;  ?  beyond,  over  +  ?  form.] 
  1.  Change  of  form  or  structure;  transformation. 
 
  2.  (Biol.)  A  change  in  the  form  or  function  of  a  living 
  organism,  by  a  natural  process  of  growth  or  development; 
  as  the  metamorphosis  of  the  yolk  into  the  embryo,  of  a 
  tadpole  into  a  frog,  or  of  a  bud  into  a  blossom. 
  Especially,  that  form  of  sexual  reproduction  in  which  an 
  embryo  undergoes  a  series  of  marked  changes  of  external 
  form  as  the  chrysalis  stage,  pupa  stage,  etc.,  in 
  insects.  In  these  intermediate  stages  sexual  reproduction 
  is  usually  impossible,  but  they  ultimately  pass  into  final 
  and  sexually  developed  forms,  from  the  union  of  which 
  organisms  are  produced  which  pass  through  the  same  cycle 
  of  changes.  See  {Transformation}. 
 
  3.  (Physiol.)  The  change  of  material  of  one  kind  into  another 
  through  the  agency  of  the  living  organism;  metabolism. 
 
  {Vegetable  metamorphosis}  (Bot.),  the  doctrine  that  flowers 
  are  homologous  with  leaf  buds,  and  that  the  floral  organs 
  are  transformed  leaves. 




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