Nearly three decades ago, biologists discovered that planktotrophic larvae of sea urchins can alter the size of their ciliated feeding structures in response to the concentration of food (i.e., unicellular algae). In the years since, this response has become one of the best-studied examples of phenotypic plasticity in marine organisms. Researchers have found that this form of plasticity occurs widely among different types of feeding larvae in several phyla, and involves energetic trade-offs with a suite of correlated life history characters. Furthermore, investigators have recently started to unravel the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying this plasticity. We review the literature on feeding-structure plasticity in marine invertebrate larvae. We highlight the diversity of species and variety of experimental designs and statistical methodologies, summarize research findings to draw more general conclusions, and target promising directions for future research.