There are a number of differences in meiosis; starting with the fact that meiosis only occurs in sex cells, producing a sperm and an egg. We have the same stages in meiosis which are prophase I, metaphase I, anaphase I and telophase I, but again meiosis performs these phases twice to leave behind four cells with half the genetic material in each cell. In the first prophase I, the DNA is replicated and we again end up with pairs of chromatids. Just as in mitosis, mitotic spindles prepare to pull centrioles from opposite sides. There is a mid to late prophase I which, again, is different from mitosis because at that time the chromatids separate differently. This means that they will not be genetically identical in the end. Moving to metaphase I, as in mitosis, pairs of chromatids align in the center of the cell. Extraction begins again in anaphase I, where there is an arbitrary separation of pairs on either side of the cell. In telophase 1, the cell separates and we are left with two cells containing only 23 chromosomes. Then we start this process again everywhere