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Biology / Unit 13   Bio 3353 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Cleavage and Blastula Formation

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The idea

Cleavage divides a fertilized egg rapidly through mitosis without overall growth, producing a solid ball of smaller cells that hollows into a blastula past roughly a hundred cells.

In practice

Cleavage divisions occur so fast the embryo's total size barely changes despite the rising cell count.

Where people slip

Cleavage divides cell number without growing total mass, unlike ordinary mitotic growth elsewhere in development.

Your place on the trail

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