Prenatal development Flashcards
Chordates
A figure of the tree of life, including major groups from the origins of life. Highlighted are the chordates, which include humans, as well as sea stars, fish, amphibians, mammals, birds, and reptiles.
Chordates- we all have this spinal cord
About 90% of us has a skeletal spinal collum
Species Biodiversity
True of false: the number of chordate species is relatively very small compared to other taxonomic groups, such as beetles, fungi, bacteria, plants, and many others.
True
What does the process of growth and embryological development share?
Many similarities across species as diverse as humans, chickens, frogs and fish
A cladogram depicting the emergence of jaws, lungs, claws or nails, feathers, fur, and mammary glands across different chordate taxa, from Hagfish to Chimpanzees. All these organisms will diversify into complex organisms.
Early Scientific Views on Prenatal Development
Ca. 1590s: Invention of the microscope
1695: Nicolaas Hartsoeker and the preformation theory of development
19th Century: Improvements in optics had demonstrated that embryonic development did not involve simple process of growth, but also substantial differentiation
- invention of the microscope as well as technology enabled us to see things for the first time aspects that were too small
- Nicolaas saw a little tiny human which led to pre formation- the womb was seen as a metaphor (over) in which tiny humans were expanded in size.
Pre formation definition
Development is entirely the form of growth
What is scala naturae?
Great Chain of Being. Species are fixed and arranged hierarchically.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C)
Explain the Great Chain of Being
The idea that humans were at or near the top of an evolutionary ladder. This idea is widespread outside science, but not scientifically correct or accurate
Embryos took the form of adult animals that were lower down on the ladder of creation. - known as recapitulation theory.
Lower animals and higher animals. Humans are at the top of this latter of creation. Idea that humans are the most evolved type of animal. False idea that evolutionary change is a directional process. (teleological view)
Recapitulation Theory
Drawings of embryos used to support the Recapitulation theory. Haeckel reported substantial similarity in the forms of early embryos in a wide variety of species.
Theorists saw in their microscopes the human embryo going through fish like stage of development followed by salamander ect.
We now know this isn’t correct.
Recapitulation Theory:
Differentiation of species
Early embryos are very much more differentiated across species than previously believed. Bad news for the recapitulation hypothesis.
This emphasises how our prior beliefs can impact our basic acts of perception and it also shows how reliant scientific inquiry is on technology.
What are the stages of Prenatal (Antenatal) Development?
- The Germinal Period (from conception to implantation)
- The Period of the Embryo (implantation to ~2 months)
- The Period of the Fetus (2 months to birth)
Germinal Period
Montage of photographs and drawings, with a sperm depicted near an egg, and then several depictions of early cell division within the fertilized egg.
conception - sperm cell approaching the egg in the fallopian tube. Zygote (fertilsed egg) moves down tube into the uterus. For the first 4 days after conception, the zygote continues to multiply forming a mass of cells (morula)
Mass of cells= morula. During the first few days, the daughter cells get smaller and smaller so eventually there is a ball of identical cells squeezed together in a mass. These are stem cells and they can turn into any kind of tissue. Scientists want these to use these cells to grow replacement tissues and organs
About day 5- this mass of cells is called a blastocyst- theres a mass of cells next to an empty space. This is the earliest form of physical differentiation that occurs in the developing zygote.
What is a morula?
A mass of cells
In the path of the oocyte (egg) from the ovary through the fallopian tube to the uterus, where implantation takes place, what key events take place?
- Oocyte/ ovulation
- Day 0- Fertilisation
- Fertilized egg (zygote)
Day 1:
first cleavage
Day 2:
2 cell stage
Day 3-4:
4-cell stage, 8-cell uncompacted morula
Day 4:
8-cell compacted morula
Day 5:
Early blastocyst (trophectoderm, blastocoel, inner cell mass)
Day 6-7:
Late stage blastocyst (hatching) (zona pellucida)
Day 8-9:
Implantation of the blastocyst (epiblast, hypoblast)
What key events take place in the path of the oocyte?
Fertilisation, first cell division, formation of the blastocyst, terminating in the implantation of the zygote into the uterine wall on Day 8 or 9 post-conception.
Cell Differentiation (at 2 weeks)
Blastocyst now differentiates into three distinct layers of tissue types
Further division of the early embryo into three histologically distinct layers, the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and the endoderm. As each of these areas develop they become major organ systems eg endoderm becomes the nervous system, mesoderm become muscles, toes and circulatory system.
