Every Friday, I plan to post images or video of larvae to demonstrate the beauty, utility and critical importance of this life stage.
One of the best videos showing the larval (and juvenile) life of an echinoderm. In our lab we study sea urchins which are closely related to sand dollars. The larvae look very similar. Most of our lab and other developmental labs only study the first few days or hours during embryogenesis (in the video, the few seconds spanning the egg dividing and gastrulating (making a gut)) to gain insights into early developmental events, e.g. initial specification and differentiation, which are difficult to study in mammals.
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