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Discussion:
Sea urchin development can be altered by a series
of environmental changes. One of these changes is
temperature. In our initial experiment, we showed that sea
urchins undergo cleavage more rapidly in higher
temperatures. In our second experiment observations were
extended over a longer period of time. We observed that
changes in temperature caused changes in development.
Twenty-four hours after fertilization, archenteron formation
was visible in the control embryos whereas the embryos in
the other two temperatures were undergoing abnormal and slow
development. Lastly, 48 hours after fertilization the
control embryo were all at the pluteus larvae stage while
the other embryos were either dead or developing abnormally.
Overall, sea urchin embryo development is temperature-
dependent, with the process occurring at a faster rate and
demonstrating abnormal developments at warmer than ideal
temperatures, and a slower rate, and even cell death, taking
place at cooler than optimal temperatures.
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