How did the characteristic pattern of embryonic cell divisions during animal development evolve? Analysis of the multicellular development of an organism related to animals now provides some answers.

New research is underway to decipher a fascinating biological puzzle—how some animals can naturally discard more than half of their genetic information during embryonic development. This radical ...

Animal embryos go through a series of characteristic developmental stages on their journey from a fertilized egg cell to a functional organism. This biological process is largely genetically ...

Chromosphaera perkinsii is a single-celled species discovered in 2017 in marine sediments around Hawaii. The first signs of its presence on Earth have been dated at over a billion years, well before ...

Researchers reveal that the guinea pig pre-implantation embryo is very similar to the human embryo, spurring a better understanding of infertility and early human development. CRCHUM researcher Sophie ...

The first few days of a human embryo’s development, known as pre-implantation, are important. It’s when the first cells are formed, and these decide if the embryo can survive, how it will implant in ...