Friday, July 8, 2011

Abalone development


I recently got to be a part of an abalone spawning team, where we induced abalones to release their gametes. It was very fun to see the fertilized eggs develop, and interesting for me because it was the first time that I had actually seen spiral cleavage in action! It was so different looking than radial cleavage...

I did not manage to get pictures of all of the stages, as I had to sleep, so expect some gaps. But I hope you enjoy this abalone development slide show that I put together of the stages I did see.