Amazing Timelapse Shows a Salamander Growing From a Single Cell Into a Complete, Complex Living Organism Over Three Weeks

Watch as an alpine salamander grows from a single cell.

mage credit: Jan van IJken/Youtube
Dutch director Jan van IJken has produced a captivating short film titled ‘Becoming’ that portrays the entire embryonic growth of an alpine newt in about six minutes, compressing a process that normally takes about three weeks.

The film commences by illustrating the fundamental process of embryogenesis, where a single cell of the newt divides and multiplies into several cells.

“We see the ‘making of’ a salamander in its transparent egg from fertilization to hatching,” according to IJken’s website. “The first stages of embryonic development are roughly the same for all animals, including humans. In the film, we can observe a universal process which is normally invisible: the very beginning of an animal’s life. A single cell is transformed into a complete, complex living organism with a beating heart and running bloodstream.”