Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
In consequence of these important folding-processes in the primitive
gut, the simple entodermic tube divides into four different sections:—
I, underneath, at the ventral side, the permanent alimentary canal or
permanent gut; II, above, at the dorsal side, the axial rod or chorda;
and III, the two cœlom-sacs, which immediately sub-divide into two
structures:—IIIA, above, on the dorsal side, the _episomites,_ the
double row of primitive or muscular segments; and IIIB, below, on each
side of the gut, the _hyposomites,_ the two lateral plates that give
rise to the sex-glands, and the cavities of which partly unite to form
the body-cavity. At the same time, the neural or medullary tube is
formed above the chorda, on the dorsal surface, by the closing of the
parallel medullary swellings. All these processes, which outline the
typical structure of the vertebrate, take place with astonishing
rapidity in the embryo of the Amphioxus; in the afternoon of the first
day, or twenty-four hours after fertilisation, the young vertebrate,
the typical embryo, is formed; it then has, as a rule, six to eight
somites.
The chief occurrence on the second day of development is the
construction of the two permanent openings of the gut—the mouth and
anus. In the earlier stages the alimentary tube is found to be entirely
closed, after the closing of the primitive mouth; it only communicates
behind by the neurenteric canal with the medullary tube. The permanent
mouth is a secondary formation, at the opposite end. Here, at the end
of the second day, we find a pit-like depression in the outer skin,
which penetrates inwards into the closed gut. The anus is formed behind
in the same way a few hours later (in the vicinity of the additional
gastrula-mouth). In man and the higher vertebrates also the mouth and
anus are formed, as we have seen, as flat pits in the outer skin; they
then penetrate inwards, gradually becoming connected with the blind
ends of the closed gut-tube. During the second day the Amphioxus-embryo
undergoes few other changes. The number of primitive segments
increases, and generally amounts to fourteen, some forty-eight to fifty
hours after impregnation.
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