On the features of embryonic cleavage in diverse fish species

Literature on the earliest steps of fish embryogenesis (including a number of non-model species) has been considered. The main attention has been paid to the loss of cleavage division synchrony and the first latitudinal cleavage furrow. In teleostean embryos, the features of their meroblastic cleavage are not rigidly associated with egg size. The midblastula transition (in a form clearly enough) occurs in some chondrostean and teleostean fishes, but it has not been detected in the representatives of sarcopterygian and chondrichthyan fishes.