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I must look rather strange to you,

2
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all covered in spines,

3
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without even a face.

4
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But I've taken many forms during my life.

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I started out just like you:

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a tiny egg in a watery world.

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My parents never knew each other.

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One moonlit night before a storm,

9
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thousands of urchins, clams and corals

10
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released trillions of sperm and eggs
into the open sea.

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My father's sperm
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
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.

19
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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
by all kinds of organisms,

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larvae of all sorts.

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Most are so different
from their adult form

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

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Try matching these youngsters
to their parents.

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This veliger larvae
will turn into a snail;

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this zoea, into a crab;

33
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and this planula, into a clytia jelly.

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

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These baby jellies, known as ephyrae,

36
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already resemble their beautiful
but deadly parents.

37
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Here in the plankton,
there's more than one way

38
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to get your genes
into the next generation.

39
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Most Medusa jellies make
special structures called polyps,

40
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that simply bud off babies
with no need for sex.

41
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Salps are similar.

42
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When food is abundant,

43
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they just clone themselves
into long chains.

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The plankton is full of surprises
when it comes to sex.

45
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Meet the hermaphrodites.

46
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These comb jellies and arrow worms

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produce, store and release
both sperm and eggs.

48
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They can fertilize themselves,

49
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or another.

50
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When you're floating in a vast sea,

51
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with little control over who you may meet,

52
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it can pay to play
both sides of the field.

53
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The majority of species here,
however, never mate,

54
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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,

58
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while most of my kin were devoured.

59
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Not all parents leave
the survival of their offspring to chance.

60
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Some have far fewer young
and take much better care of them,

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brooding their precious cargo
for days, even months.

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This speedy copepod

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totes her beautifully
packaged eggs for days.

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This Phronima crustacean
carries her babies on her chest,

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then carefully places them
in a gelatinous barrel.

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But the black-eyed squid takes the prize.

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She cradles her eggs
in long arms for nine months,

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the same time it takes
to gestate a human infant.

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Eventually, all youngsters
have to make it on their own

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in this drifting world.

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Some will spend
their whole lives in the plankton,

72
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but others, like me, move on.

73
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A few weeks after I was conceived,

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I decided to settle down,

75
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and metamorphosed
into a recognizable urchin.

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So now you know a bit of my story.

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I may just be a slow-moving
ball of spines,

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but don't let my calm
adult exterior fool you.

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I was a rocket ship.

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I was a wild child.