UNSW Embryology

Embryology Lab - Intro to Human Development

© Dr Mark Hill (2008)

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Human development is one of the most exciting topics to study not only as a medical student, but also for our fundamental understanding of the human body.

Human Development cartoon (not to scale)

(More? Human Development cartoon (large version on new page, 4.6 Mb)

Have a look at this animation again at the end of this practical and see what you know.

This is sometimes not an easy topic to study with many very specific terms, dynamic processes and transient structures. For new terms or concepts that you don't understand use the Glossary link or Search UNSW Embryology window.

It is important at this stage of your own development to have a broad understanding of the timing of events in human development, so that you can understand normal development, organ development and when things go wrong (abnormal development).

Each page lefthand side menu ANAT1521 Lab Internal Links has all 6 online pages (in sequence) required for this current Practical, alternatively follow the white rabbit.... (at the bottom of each page). Note that viewing these pages alone is not sufficient to complete this Practical, additional demonstrator and tutor information available only in class times.

Keep coming back to embryology (and this site) as you progress through your studies and it will eventually make more sense! If you are interested in a more detailed coverage, look at the Navigation (lefthand menu) items: Dev Notes 1, Dev Notes 2, Embryo stages and Fetal Dev topics. (More? Systems Notes)

Objectives

1. General understanding of the early events of human development.
2. Understand the key divisions, events and timecourse of human development.
3. Understand the concept of mixed embryonic origins of different tissues and organs.
4. General understanding of the term “critical periods” of development.

Human Embryonic Development Overview Movie

Systems Notes

There are also more detailed notes that cover development of individual anatomical systems. (More? System Notes)

These notes are currently not part of this Laboratory and provide significantly more detail that in this introductory laboratory.

Online Resources

UNSW Embryology

Human Menstrual Cycle

Week 1 Development

Week 2 Development

Next

Link to next page in this Laboratory - Week 1 and 2 This provides information about fertilization and implantation.

Glossary of Terms

Use the alphabetical list below to find definitions of terms that are new to you.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W |X | Y | Z

UNSW Embryology

Quick Movie Links

Movie of Human Embryo Growth (this shows a human embryo growing, all images are to scale)

Movie of Mouse Embryo Growth (this shows a mouse embryo growing)

Quick Links

UNSW Embryology ISBN: 978 0 7334 2609 4

UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G