Animal Development

Introduction

A list of different animal embryos that have been used in embryology studies that can be found within the UNSW Embryology program.

The links are to more detailed pages with overviews of embryological development and the key experimental findings. There are also links to external resources and labs that use these models. Use the title below to open pages with more about information about that animals embryo development and additional pages that relate to that species.

Historic Embryology
1897 Pig \| 1900 Chicken \| 1901 Lungfish \| 1904 Sand Lizard \| 1905 Rabbit \| 1906 Deer \| 1907 Tarsiers \| 1908 Human \| 1909 Northern Lapwing \| 1909 South American and African Lungfish \| 1910 Salamander \| 1951 Frog \| Embryology History \| Historic Disclaimer

Bat

Bat Development | Bat

Not a typical embryo used in developmental studies, but first alphabetically and an alternative mammalian model. A recent paper has detailed the short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata) embryonic stages of development.

Cow

Bovine Development | Bovine

Bovine, not a typical embryological model, but extensively studied due to commercial value and more recently for breeding using IVF techniques. Development takes about 280 days.

Chicken

chicken | original page

The chicken embryo develops and hatches in 20-21 days and historically these were one of the first embryos to be studied. Cutting a window in the egg shell allows direct observation of the embryo. The Hamburger & Hamilton chicken development staging allowed researchers to develop this model as a key embryological tool.
Key research involved the transplanting of quail cells into chick embryos, to later identify their contribution to different embryonic structures, particularly for somite, neural tube and neural crest development.

Echidna

Echidna Development | Echidna

Not a typical embryo used in developmental studies, much work is still required to determine this unique monotreme embryonic stages of development.

Fly

Fly Development | Fly

The fruitfly (drosophila) was and is the traditional geneticist's tool. It has been transformed to an magnificent embryologist's tool, with developmental mechanisms being uncovered in this system combined with homolgy gene searches in other species. The fly genome was one of the first to be been completely sequenced.
In early development nurse cells sacrifice their cytoplasmic contents to allow egg growth and early pattern formation is through the localization of maternal messenger RNAs (mRNAs).

Frog

Frog Development | Frog | Frog Life Cycle | Frog Gastrulation | Frog Localized mRNA

The frog was used by many of the early embryology investigators and currently there are many different molecular mechanisms concerning development of the frog.
The eggs develop independently, in relative synchrony and are relatively see-through making staging and observation fairly easy.
The frog was a key model for the study of the process of gastrulation.

Guinea Pig

Guinea Pig Development | Guinea Pig

The guinea pig has been used as a model animal in many animal model studies; developmental, dietary, tetragenic, including the effects of maternal temperature on development.

Mouse

mouse | original page

The mouse has always been a good embryological model, easy to generate (litters 8-20) and quick (21d).
Mouse embryology really expanded when molecular biologists used mice for gene knockouts.

Pig

pig | original page

Platypus

Platypus Development | Platypus

Not a typical embryo used in developmental studies and we still no very little about the embryonic stages of this unique monotreme development.
The platypus has an amazing sex chromosome organization,

Rabbit

Rabbit Development | Rabbit

The rabbit along with human, are the few species which show birth defects with thalidomide (teratogenic effects) which were not detected with prior testing on other species.

Rat

Rat Development | Rat | Rat Estrous Cycle

The rat is available as inbred, outbred and mutant strains. They have been generally beaten as a model by their mice brethren, as the molecular tools that became available (stem cells, knockout genes, etc). Rat embryos do have the advantage of being much larger than mouse embryos and easy to breed. Rat development is also generally 1 day behind from mouse.

Worm

Worm Development | Worm

Early embryological studies of the worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C.Elegans, so called because of its "elegant" curving movement) characterized the fate of each and every cell in the worm through all stages of development. This worm has recently had its entire genome sequenced.

Zebrafish

Zebrafish Development | Zebrafish

Zebrafish are seen as the latest and greatest "model' for embryological development studies. They can be easily genetically altered and develop as practically "see through" embryos, all internal development can be clearly observed from the outside in the living embryo.

Medaka Fish

Medaka | Medaka Fish

The Japanese rice fish (Oryzias latipes) is a member of the killifish family and used in several developmental studies.

Missing Species

These species have been used in a variety of developmental studies, but I have not yet developed an online resource.

Axolotl Development - (Ambystoma mexicanum) A salamander where the larvae do not undergo metamorphosis and adults remain gilled and aquatic. The ability to regenrate limbs has been used to study developmental pattern formation and nerve regeneration. Also used to investigate neural crest migration.

Monkey Development - a model used for primate development studies.
Sea Urchin - A species used to study very early development from fertilization onward.
Grasshopper - A species used in neural development studies.
Koala Development

Other Pages

Embryo Staging Systems - stages are based on the external and/or internal morphological development of the vertebrate embryo, and are not directly dependent on either age or size.

Carnegie Stage Comparison - the human embryonic period proper is divided into 23 Carnegie stages. Criteria beyond morphological features include age in days, number of somites present, and embryonic length. This staging can be applied to all vertebrates, and most vertebrate embryos develop during the embryonic period in much the same way, we can directly compare the timing of development for different species.

Glossary Links

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Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, May 1) Embryology Animal Development. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Animal_Development

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