Fertilization
union of gametes of opposite sexes during the process of sexual reproduction to form a zygote / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Fertilizer, used to help plants grow
Fertilization (British English spelling: fertilisation) is when a male's sperm enters a female's ovum (or "egg"). Fertilization is also called conception. Biologists call a fertilized egg a zygote. A zygote grows into an embryo.
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Sperm-egg.jpg/320px-Sperm-egg.jpg)
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Liverwort_life_cycle.jpg/640px-Liverwort_life_cycle.jpg)
Fertilization occurs in animals, including humans and birds, in plants, fungi, protists, in fact all eukaryotes. Fertilization makes a cell with twice as many chromosomes. The eukaryote life cycle includes meiosis which divides the chromosome number in half.