In biology, moulting, or molting, also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at specific times of the year, or at specific points in its life cycle.
A dragonfly in its radical final moult, metamorphosing from an aquatic nymph to a winged adult.
A king penguin with developing replacement feathers, sometimes called pin feathers
A young Mediterranean House Gecko in the process of moulting.
The moulting phase of a southern hawker
Invertebrates is an umbrella term describing animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column, which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum Vertebrata, i.e. vertebrates. Well-known phyla of invertebrates include arthropods, mollusks, annelids, echinoderms, flatworms, cnidarians and sponges.
Invertebrate
The fossil coral Cladocora from the Pliocene of Cyprus
Image: European wasp white bg 02
Image: Platycryptus Undatus Female