InhaltsangabeDevelopment and Reproduction: An Introduction.- Stages and Principles of Animal Development Terms of Developmental Biology.- The Start: Fertilization, Activation of the Egg and a First Series of Cell Divisions (Cleavage).- Model Organisms in Developmental Biology I: Invertebrates.- Development of Important Model Species II: Vertebrates.- The Human.- In Preparation for New Life I: Sex Determination and Sexual Development.- In Preparation for New Life II: Gametogenesis: The Development of Egg Cells and Sperm and Their Provision with Heritable Reserves.- Specification of Body Axes and Localized Fate Allotment by External and Maternal Cues.- Positional Information, Embryonic Induction and Pattern Formation by Cell-Cell-Communication.- Controlling Signals, Signal Propagation and Signal Transduction.- Development and Genes.- Application- Oriented Experiments with Early Vertebrate Embryos: Cloning, Transgenic Animals.- Morphogenesis: Shaping by Active Cell Movement, Differential Cell Adhesion and Cell Death.- Long Distance Wanderers and the Various Fates of the Neural Crest Cells.- The Nervous System and Central Sensory Organs.- Heart and Blood Vessels.- Stem cells, Regeneration, Regenerative Medicine.- Growth Control and Cancer.- Metamorphosis and its Hormonal Control.- Immortality or Ageing and Death: What is Nature's Aim?.- Evolution of Development.