0:00:26.160,0:00:28.428
I must look rather strange to you,

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all covered in spines,

0:00:31.036,0:00:32.712
without even a face.

0:00:35.162,0:00:38.120
But I've taken many forms during my life.

0:00:39.489,0:00:41.323
I started out just like you:

0:00:42.585,0:00:45.000
a tiny egg in a watery world.

0:00:46.235,0:00:48.455
My parents never knew each other.

0:00:48.479,0:00:50.962
One moonlit night before a storm,

0:00:50.986,0:00:53.998
thousands of urchins, clams and corals

0:00:54.022,0:00:57.330
released trillions of sperm and eggs[br]into the open sea.

0:01:08.925,0:01:11.787
My father's sperm[br]somehow met my mother's egg,

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and they fused.

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Fertilization.

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Instantly, I became an embryo[br]the size of a speck of dust.

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After a few hours of drifting,

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I cleaved in two,

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then four,

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then eight cells.

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Then so many, I lost count.

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In less than a day,

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I developed a gut and a skeleton.

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I became a rocket ship,

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a pluteus larva.

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I floated through the world of plankton,

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searching for tiny algae to eat.

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For weeks, I was surrounded[br]by all kinds of organisms,

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larvae of all sorts.

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Most are so different[br]from their adult form

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that biologists have a tough time[br]figuring out who they are.

0:02:11.567,0:02:14.266
Try matching these youngsters[br]to their parents.

0:02:16.877,0:02:19.654
This veliger larvae[br]will turn into a snail;

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this zoea, into a crab;

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and this planula, into a clytia jelly.

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Some of my young companions[br]are easier to picture as grown-ups.

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These baby jellies, known as ephyrae,

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already resemble their beautiful[br]but deadly parents.

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Here in the plankton,[br]there's more than one way

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to get your genes[br]into the next generation.

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Most Medusa jellies make[br]special structures called polyps,

0:02:54.738,0:02:58.153
that simply bud off babies[br]with no need for sex.

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Salps are similar.

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When food is abundant,

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they just clone themselves[br]into long chains.

0:03:09.272,0:03:12.916
The plankton is full of surprises[br]when it comes to sex.

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Meet the hermaphrodites.

0:03:18.402,0:03:20.473
These comb jellies and arrow worms

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produce, store and release[br]both sperm and eggs.

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They can fertilize themselves,

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or another.

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When you're floating in a vast sea,

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with little control over who you may meet,

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it can pay to play[br]both sides of the field.

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The majority of species here,[br]however, never mate,

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nor form any sort of lasting bonds.

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That was my parents' strategy.

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There were so many of us pluteus larvae,

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I just hid in the crowd,

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while most of my kin were devoured.

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Not all parents leave[br]the survival of their offspring to chance.

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Some have far fewer young[br]and take much better care of them,

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brooding their precious cargo[br]for days, even months.

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This speedy copepod

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totes her beautifully[br]packaged eggs for days.

0:04:23.808,0:04:27.209
This Phronima crustacean[br]carries her babies on her chest,

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then carefully places them[br]in a gelatinous barrel.

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But the black-eyed squid takes the prize.

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She cradles her eggs[br]in long arms for nine months,

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the same time it takes[br]to gestate a human infant.

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Eventually, all youngsters[br]have to make it on their own

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in this drifting world.

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Some will spend[br]their whole lives in the plankton,

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but others, like me, move on.

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A few weeks after I was conceived,

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I decided to settle down,

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and metamorphosed[br]into a recognizable urchin.

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So now you know a bit of my story.

0:05:25.675,0:05:29.122
I may just be a slow-moving[br]ball of spines,

0:05:29.146,0:05:32.629
but don't let my calm[br]adult exterior fool you.

0:05:35.169,0:05:36.839
I was a rocket ship.

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I was a wild child.