Bud (zoology)

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In animals, the bud is the part of the parental body from which a new individual grows in an asexual way and either remains in connection with the parental animal for life or later separates from it.

In contrast to the egg , which is always a single cell, the bud consists of several cells , both those of the skin layer ( ectoderm ) and those of the intestinal layer ( endoderm ). The bud already has the most important layers of the body ( cotyledons ) in it, while in the egg they first have to form anew.

The reproduction by buds, the budding , is a variant of the asexual reproduction by division in which the individual is divided into two equally large individuals and sprouting in which a smaller and a larger individual arise.

It is only common in lower animals, e.g. B. in the sponges , hydrozoans and umbrella jellyfish , and here very often leads to the formation of large colonies (for example in corals and bog animals ); also, the young need not always resemble the parental animal (eg firmly attached hydroid polyps produce free-swimming jellyfish by budding ).

In lower animals, the buds serve as hibernacles or statoblasts to survive dry or cold periods.