T he student shall demonstrate their ability to think and work in a lab environment by careful observations on later stages of development of the sea urchin, writing up a lab report, and answering the Implications Questions.
Sea urchins are very similar to humans up through gastrulation.
However, we do not go through a pluteus stage. The sea urchin is different, having a different life strategy. Understanding differences helps us to see the necessity of having different organisms for different ecological niches in our environment. As an organism develops it often shows its phylogenetic heritage by the stages it goes through. See if, in your observations today, you can identify characteristics common to other phyla.