many other animals presented a cleavage essentially similar to that of
_Peripatus_. Indeed, it was found that the nuclear divisions of cleavage
were of the first two kinds just described. In some eggs, e.g. the
Alcyonaria, the first nuclear divisions are effected on the first plan,
i.e. they take place without at first producing any visible effect upon
the protoplasm of the egg. But in the later stages of cleavage the
protoplasm becomes arranged around each nucleus and related to it as to
a centre. In the majority of eggs, however, the protoplasm, though not
undergoing complete cleavage, becomes rearranged round each nucleus as
these are formed. The best and clearest instance of this is afforded by
many Arthropodan eggs, in which the nucleus of the just-formed zygote
takes up a central position, where it undergoes its first division,
subsequent divisions taking place entirely within the egg and not in any
way affecting its exterior. The result is to give rise to a nucleated
network or foam-work of protoplasm, ramifying through the yolk-particles
and containing these in its meshes.
In other Arthropodan eggs the cleavage is on the so-called
centrolecithal type, in which the dividing nuclei pass to the cortex of
the ovum, and the surface of the ovum becomes indented with grooves
corresponding to each nucleus. In this kind of cleavage all the
so-called segments are continuous with the central undivided yolk-mass.
It sometimes happens that in Arthropods the egg breaks up into masses,
which cannot be said to have the value of cells, as they are frequently
without nuclei. In other eggs, characterized by a considerable amount of
yolk, e.g. the ova of Cephalopoda, and of the Vertebrata with much yolk,
the first nucleus takes up an eccentric position in a small patch of
protoplasm which is comparatively free from yolk-particles. This patch
is the germinal disc, and the nuclear divisions are confined to it and
to the transitional region, where it merges into the denser yolk which
makes up the bulk of the egg. At the close of segmentation the germinal
disc consists of a number of nuclei, each surrounded by its own mass of
protoplasm, which is, however, not separated from the protoplasm round
the neighbouring nuclei, as was formerly supposed, but is continuous at
the points of contact. In this manner the germinal disc has become
converted into the blastoderm, which consists of a small
watch-glass-shaped mass of so-called cells resting on, but continuous
with, the large yolk-mass. It is characteristic of this kind of ovum
that there is always a row of nuclei, called the yolk-nuclei, placed in
the denser yolk immediately adjacent to the blastoderm. These nuclei are
continually undergoing division, one of the products of division,
together with a little of the sparse yolk protoplasm, passing into the
blastoderm to reinforce it (so-called formative cells). The other
product of the dividing yolk-nuclei remains in the yolk, in readiness
for the next division.
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