Hatchling

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Yellow faced honeyeater chicks
Yellow faced honeyeater chicks

In oviparous biology, a hatchling is the newborn of animals that develop and emerge from within hard-shell eggs. The offspring of birds are often hatched naked and with their eyes closed. The hatchling relies totally on its parents for feeding and warmth. Hatchlings precede nestlings in the chick's life cycle. The reptile hatchling is quite the opposite. Most baby reptiles are born with the same instincts as their parents and leave to live on their own immediately after birth.

A hawksbill turtle hatchling.
A hawksbill turtle hatchling.
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In human medicine, a hatchling is the human young having emerged from the protective capsule (zona pellucida) provided by the human egg in a process called hatching. [1]

A human baby hatching
A human baby hatching

Before hatching, the baby will grow a primitive spacesuit to provide protection after emerging from the egg capsule. The spacesuit is filled with chorionic fluid. The fluid-filled portion is also known as the blastocystic cavity. Upon implantation, the spacesuit grows to become the birth sac, umbilical cord, and the chorionic portion of the placenta. The discarded spacesuit emerges after birth as the afterbirth. The formal body of the baby hatchling was once crudely identified as the inner cell mass by developmental biologists, prior to awareness of the human hatching event. [2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Califorrniaa, E. "Method of monitoring the body temperature of human embryos and hatchlings." U.S. Patent No. 6,694,175. Feb. 17, 2004.
  2. ^ Califorrniaa, E. "Vented microcradle for prenidial incubator." U.S. Patent No. 7,121,998. Oct. 17, 2006.