Our data suggests that the differences in body plan organization of larvae and adults is primarily based on differences in cell type composition and transcriptional state and that specific cellular complements have evolved to support the vastly different ecologies and behaviors of larvae and adults.

Here we study a hemichordate 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘻𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘮, a species with a complex lifecycle where the formation of the adult occurs through a dramatic metamorphosis transforms the planktonic larva into a burrowing benthic adult.

In many species the adult is formed not from an embryo, but through metamorphosis – the transformation of a larval body plan into an adult.

Even though this a common strategy across how this occurs at a molecular and cellular level remains unknown in many species.