<P> Meiosis was discovered and described for the first time in sea urchin eggs in 1876 by the German biologist Oscar Hertwig . It was described again in 1883, at the level of chromosomes, by the Belgian zoologist Edouard Van Beneden, in Ascaris roundworm eggs . The significance of meiosis for reproduction and inheritance, however, was described only in 1890 by German biologist August Weismann, who noted that two cell divisions were necessary to transform one diploid cell into four haploid cells if the number of chromosomes had to be maintained . In 1911 the American geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan detected crossovers in meiosis in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, which helped to establish that genetic traits are transmitted on chromosomes . </P> <P> The term meiosis (originally spelled "maiosis") was introduced to biology by J.B. Farmer and J.E.S. Moore in 1905: </P> <P> We propose to apply the terms Maiosis or Maiotic phase to cover the whole series of nuclear changes included in the two divisions that were designated as Heterotype and Homotype by Flemming . </P> <P> It is derived from the Greek word μείωσις, meaning' lessening' . </P>

Where does meiosis take place in multicellular organisms