PSYC 2500 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Inner Cell Mass, Amniotic Sac, Carrot Juice

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2500
• Professor: Deepthi Kamawar

Document Summary

Epigenesis the emergence of new structures and functions during development. Preformationism in the seventeenth century, it was believed that under the microscope when observing samples of semen, they could see a tiny figure curled up inside the head of the sperm. They believed that the miniature person would enlarge after entering the egg. We each emerge through conception from the sperm from our father and egg from our mother. These gametes, or germ cells, are unique not only in their function but also in the fact that each one contains only one half of the genetic material found in the other cells. Gametes are produced through meiosis, a special type of cell division in which the eggs and sperm receive only one member from each of the 23 chromosome pairs contained in all the other cells in the body. The sperm travels 6 hours, journeying 6 or 7 inches from the vagina through the uterus to the egg-bearing fallopian tube.