Metamorphosis — the process by which animals undergo substantial changes to become an adult — can involve a complete redesign of the body plan. While not all transitions are as dramatic as the metamorphosis from larvae to adult, animals that undergo transitions as they move toward the adult stage are described as having complex life cycles. But why did animals evolve such complex life cycles?

In 1986 a scientist named Earl Werner proposed an explanation that has been widely cited since. Werner said that as an individual grows, energy demands increase faster than energy uptake. But, switching body plans (which usually means better access to food sources) enables individuals to continue growing and to reach the reproductive stage more efficiently and in better health. Werner’s model predicts the size at which an individual will transition as the size that minimises the chance of dying compared to its growth rate. Werner assumed the mass of the individual won’t change as a result of transition to the new phase of the life cycle.

Emily Richardson and her supervisors Dustin Marshall and Craig White wondered if this was true. If not, and there was a cost/benefit of transition, then the optimal size to change body plan might differ from Werner’s predictions.

Emily set about reviewing the literature to find out if there were any changes in mass that related to transitioning from one life stage to the next. Emily found data for 100 species and 343 life stages where she was able to record changes in growth rate and mass.

It turned out that across all taxa, as Werner predicted, growth rates were maintained or increased after switching to a new phase. But Werner hadn’t accounted for the change in mass that Emily and her supervisors observed in most taxa. On average amphibians lost 28%, insects 32% and crustaceans 8% of their mass during metamorphosis. During changes from one larval stage to another, fish and crustaceans actually gained mass and fish gained even more mass during metamorphosis. These increases in mass are likely to reflect more subtle life-history transitions where feeding is possible and transitioning is not as energetically costly.

Either way, the team found that when changes in mass during transition are accounted for, the optimal size for transition will deviate from Werner’s predictions. For species that gain mass during a transition to a new phase, individuals should switch at a smaller size, while for species that lose mass, Emily and her supervisors predict they will transition at a larger size compared to Werner’s current theory.

To better understand the optimal size where transition will maximise fitness, we need to incorporate the change in mass that happens during this transition. And to test Werner’s theory further, the team highlight the need to estimate mortality rates in the field, including the risk of dying when transitioning to a new stage.

This research is published in the journal Functional Ecology.