larva

To examine this, experiments were carried out in mice and insect larvae.

Working with week-old zebrafish larva, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and colleagues decoded how the connections formed by a network of neurons in the brainstem guide the fishes' gaze.

"Witnessing how they slowly transition to a typical cydippid larva as if they were going back in time, was simply fascinating," Soto-Angel said in a statement.

Their larvae swim and spread out in the water, colonizing solid surfaces and attaching themselves with fibers.

Shortly after fertilization, the larvae become mobile and are capable of coordinated swimming as they disperse in the water column.