The pairs of homologous chromosomes (the bivalents), now as tightly coiled and condensed as they will be in meiosis, become arranged on a plane equidistant from the poles called the metaphase plate. read more
Both mitosis and meiosis have similar steps, including prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. Meiosis, however, has two cycles of these steps because the parent cell actually divides twice, producing four daughter cells that have half the number of chromosomes of the original cell. read more