Leonid Gavrilov  wrote:

> Greetings,
> 
> I would appreciate your feedback on the issue of high cell losses in
> early development (this may be important for understanding
> evolutionary aspects of early development).
> 
> Specifically, I wonder whether the following statement is correct:
> 
>  "The female human fetus at age 4-5 months possesses 6-7 million eggs
> (oocytes). By birth, this number drops to 1-2 million and declines
> even further.  At the start of puberty in normal girls, there are only
> 0.3-0.5 million eggs -- just only 4-8% of initial numbers."
>   
> Are there any other similar examples of early massive cell loss?
> 
> Or is this story specific to oocytes only?
> 
Search on apoptosis. Cell death is a critical aspect of early (indeed,
all) development. Some nice examples include digit development and
neural development and maturation.

-- 
John Wilkins
B'dies, Brutius
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