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Most mammals are viviparous, giving birth to live young. [1] However, the five species of monotreme, the platypuses and the echidnas, lay eggs. The monotremes have a sex determination system different from that of most other mammals. [2] In particular, the sex chromosomes of a platypus are more like those of a chicken than those of a therian ...
The egg cell is generally asymmetric, having an animal pole (future ectoderm).It is covered with protective envelopes, with different layers. The first envelope – the one in contact with the membrane of the egg – is made of glycoproteins and is known as the vitelline membrane (zona pellucida in mammals).
The evolution for semelparity in both sexes has occurred many times in plants, invertebrates, and fish. It is rare in mammals because mammals have obligate maternal care due to internal fertilization and incubation of offspring and nursing young after birth, which requires high maternal survival rate after fertilization and offspring weaning ...
Citing reptiles and other animals with a much slower biological aging process than mammals, de Magalhães hypothesizes that during the Mesozoic Era, mammals either lost or deactivated genes ...
Embryonic diapause [a] (delayed implantation in mammals) is a reproductive strategy used by a number of animal species across different biological classes.In more than 130 types of mammals where this takes place, the process occurs at the blastocyst stage of embryonic development, [1] and is characterized by a dramatic reduction or complete cessation of mitotic activity, arresting most often ...
A few mammalian species, such as rabbits, do not have an estrous cycle, instead being induced to ovulate by the act of mating and are able to conceive at almost any arbitrary moment. Generally speaking, the timing of estrus is coordinated with seasonal availability of food and other circumstances such as migration, predation etc., the goal ...
Among mammals, monotremes (four species of echidna, and the platypus) are uniquely oviparous. In all but special cases of both ovuliparity and oviparity, the overwhelming source of nourishment for the embryo is the nutrients stored in the yolk, pre-deposited in the egg by the reproductive system of the mother (the vitellogenesis ).
The duration of this period varies between species. For most species, the amount a fetus grows before birth determines the length of the gestation period. Smaller species normally have a shorter gestation period than larger animals. [2] For example, a cat's gestation normally takes 58–65 days while an elephant's takes nearly 2 years (21 ...