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fetus, the unborn young of any vertebrate animal, particularly of a mammal, after it has attained the basic form and structure typical of its kind. A brief treatment of the fetus follows. For more information on the human fetus, see pregnancy. Biologists arbitrarily speak of the earliest stages of development of the fertilized egg as the embryonic period, which ends when the external form of the embryo begins to resemble clearly the newborn of the...