The zygote passes through several developmental stages till implantation. Describe each stage briefly with suitable diagrams.

NEETprep Answer:   The zygote passes through the following stages til implantations
(i) The embryo with 8-16 blastomeres is called a morula.
(ii) The morula continues to divide and transforms into blastocyst as it moves further into
uterus.
(iii) The blastomeres in the blastocyst are arranged into a surface layer called trophoblast and a cluster of interior cells attached to trophoblast are called the inner cell mass.
(iv) The trophoblast layer then gets attached to the endometrium and inner mass cells get differentiated as embryo.
(v) After attachment, the uterine cells divide rapidly to cover the blastocyst.
(vi) The blastocyst becomes embedded in the uterine endometrium. This is called implantation