English: This is a drawing of a human fetus at 10 weeks' gestational age (i.e. 8 weeks after fertilization). A color version of this image is available at Wikimedia here.

See larger version at 3D Pregnancy. A rotatable 3D version of this photo is available here, and a sketch is available here.

The company behind 3DPregnancy.com is Tribal Internet Projects, a Dutch-based publisher of family websites. 3Dpregnancy.com was launched in 2007.[1]

This particular picture was drawn by Melchior Meijer who is a 3D artist. He and 3Dpregnancy.com used various resources to produce the illustration, including books, DVD's and websites to verify how a fetus looks at this stage of development.

Sources for assessment of accuracy

Some of the resources relied upon to create this image were as follows:

A Child is Born (A book by Lennart Nilsson)

In the Womb (DVD)

In the Womb (Book)

Kidshealth.org (Website)

When comparing this image to other images, it should be kept in mind that this stage of development is often referenced using different numerical descriptions. This is an approximate drawing of a fetus eight weeks after fertilization, i.e. at the beginning of the ninth week after fertilization. This is equivalent to a gestational age of about ten weeks, i.e. at the beginning of the eleventh week of gestational age. This drawing can be compared to other online images of a fetus at approximately the same stage of development, including the following images:

I. Drawing and movie of fetus at eight weeks and two days after fertilization, from the Endowment for Human Development;

II. Motion-picture 4D ultrasound of fetus at eight weeks and two days after fertilization, from the Endowment for Human Development;

III. Photograph of fetus during ninth week after fertilization, from Thomas W. Sadler, Langman's Medical Embryology, page 90 (2006) via Google Books;

IV. Photograph with detailed annotations at 8 weeks after fertilization, from online course in embryology for medicine students developed by the universities of Fribourg, Lausanne and Bern (Switzerland) with the support of the Swiss Virtual Campus;

V. Drawing of fetus at ten weeks’ gestational age, from KidsHealth.org which has a medical review board;

VI. Drawing of fetus at ten weeks' gestational age, from Michigan Department of Community Health;

VII. Drawing of fetus at ten weeks' gestational age, from A.D.A.M. via About.com.

VIII. Photo of intact fetus removed from 44 year-old female who was diagnosed with carcinoma in situ of cervix (early stage cancer of womb). Abortion was deemed inevitable for future health of the woman. This fetus is at 10 weeks gestation (i.e. from LMP), instead of 10 weeks from fertilisation.

Note that by the fetal stage, the tail is gone. See Mayo Clinic website. An atrophied embryonic tail bud remains, but typically there is no tail.[2] Additionally, note that a human fetus does not have gills. See Stanley J. Ulijaszek, Francis E. Johnston, M. A. Preece

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Growth and Development, pages 161-162 (1998). Also see James S. Trefil The Nature of Science, page 309 (2003). A fetus 8 weeks after fertilization is typically about 1.25 inches crown to rump. This donor-approved image is in black and white, although the originally-uploaded version is in a pinkish color. According to the pro-choice organization "Life and Liberty for Women", the color of a fetus after removal from the uterus (e.g. after an abortion) depends upon the method of removal. Gray skin will result from “laminaria through an intra-amniotic injection." On the other hand, "If the procedure was done while the fetus was alive, its skin would be the pinkish color....", as in the drawing that was originally uploaded.