I am currently using clay to study the unrolled pattern of a sea urchin shell. I wrapped the piece of clay around the north and south pole of the shell in order to see the transition from the two halves of the sphere.
This process revealed something interesting. If the overall shape of the sea urchin is approached on its end, i.e. along its "equator line", it reminds me of the process of mitosis. In particular, it reminds me of the stage of mitosis called anaphase. See below.
The only exception is that the two splitting "cells" are not equal in size. There is a defined hierarchy, just as there is a hierarchy in the longitudinal banding of the sea urchin shell.
I then found this: a study on cell division in sea urchins. It turns out that humans and the purple sea urchin share approximately 7,000 genes. In addition, a sea urchin embryo is clear which allows scientists to use these organisms to better understand the biological process after fertilization or cell division. This discovery seemed strangely coincidental.
No comments:
Post a Comment