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Background: Unlike axolotls, the urodele Notophthalmus viridescens completes two metamorphoses and emerges from its aquatic environment to mate as a fully terrestrial adult. Larval and adult limb regeneration are commonly treated as roughly equivalent processes and, at least in part, as a recapitulation of embryonic development. Results: We compared larval limb development to regeneration of both larval and adult forelimbs and found that there are substantial differences in developmental pattern among larvae and adults. The larval pattern of preaxial dominance is absent in adult regenerates: adult regenerates instead develop digits synchronously, and they do so before proximal autopodial elements have formed discrete aggregation zones. By contrast, larval regenerates follow a pattern of sequential digit formation from anterior to posterior, like their embryonic limb buds. Conclusions: Based upon these morphological clues, we conclude that larval regenerates are unlikely to exhibit features of epimorphic regeneration seen in adults, but are more likely to represent a form of developmental regulation. Furthermore, we confirm that post‐metamorphic limb regeneration is not a simple recapitulation of ontology at the morphological level. These distinctions may help to explain and interpret some experiments and observations of regeneration in neotenic or paedomorphic urodeles. Key Findings: Larval limb regeneration in N. viridescens is distinct from adult patterns of limb regenerationLarval limb regeneration resembles larval limb bud development and is preaxial in patternDifferences in larval limb regeneration among urodeles suggest caution in assuming similarities between limb development and regeneration, between larval and adult stages, and between genera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]