Fig 4. Ancestral state reconstruction for paedomorphic traits based on ML analysis of a concatenated dataset.

Eight morphological characters are color-coded for analysis and additionally patterned on developmental stages of ontogenetic cycles. See details in the text. Pie charts represent degree of support for each character state at the nodes. Strongly paedomorphic adults characterized by small size (red), small oral veil (blue) and oral tentacles absent, and small number of anterior ceratal rows (yellow).