Cleavage. Differences between animals of the two coelomate lineages are evident as early as the cleavage divisions that transform the zygote into a ball of cells. Many protostomes undergo spiral cleavage, in which planes of cell division are diagonal to the vertical axis of the embryo. As seen in the eight-cell stage resulting from spiral cleavage, small cells lie in the grooves between larger, underlying cell (FIGURE 29.5a). Furthermore, the so-called determinate cleavage of some protostomes rigidly casts the developmental fate of each embryonic cell very early. A cell isolated at the four-cell stage from a protostome, such as a snail, forms an inviable embryo that lacks parts.