We are going to look at the chromosomes , their number and shape and see what happens to them in the two types of cell division. Consider an individual with four pairs of chromosomes. The four pairs are drawn below, in the circle. In each pair, one chromosome is darker than the other one. This shows that one comes originally from the father of this individual and the other one from the mother.
Mitosis is a simple, single cell division .
Meiosis is a more complex process , with two cell divisions. During metaphase, chromosomes can be seen to have two chromatids . The separation occurs between chromatids of the same chromosome. Locate a chromosome, a pair of chromosomes, a chromatid. During the first stages of meiosis, the chromosomes of the same pair are very close to each other.