Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
In all the Anamnia (the lower amnionless Craniotes, Cyclostomes,
Fishes, Dipneusts, and Amphibia) the urinary organs remain at a lower
stage of development to this extent, that the primitive kidneys
(protonephri) act permanently as urinary glands. This is only so as a
passing phase of the early embryonic life in the three higher classes
of Vertebrates, the Amniotes. In these the permanent or after or
secondary (really tertiary) kidneys (renes or metanephri) that are
distinctive of these three classes soon make their appearance. They
represent the third and last generation of the vertebrate kidneys. The
permanent kidneys do not arise (as was long supposed) as independent
glands from the alimentary tube, but from the last section of the
primitive kidneys and the nephroduct. Here a simple tube, the
secondary renal duct, develops, near the point of its entry into the
cloaca; and this tube grows considerably forward. With its blind upper
or anterior end is connected a glandular renal growth, that owes its
origin to a differentiation of the last part of the primitive kidneys.
This rudiment of the permanent kidneys consists of coiled urinary
canals with Malpighian capsules and vascular coils (without ciliated
funnels), of the same structure as the segmental mesonephridia of the
primitive kidneys. The further growth of these metanephridia gives
rise to the compact permanent kidneys, which have the familiar
bean-shape in man and most of the higher mammals, but consist of a
number of separate folds in the lower mammals, birds, and reptiles. As
the permanent kidneys grow rapidly and advance forward, their passage,
the ureter, detaches altogether from its birth-place, the posterior
end of the nephroduct; it passes to the posterior surface of the
allantois. At first in the oldest Amniotes this ureter opens into the
cloaca together with the last section of the nephroduct, but
afterwards separately from this, and finally into the permanent
bladder apart from the rectum altogether. The bladder originates from
the hindmost and lowest part of the allantoic pedicle (urachus), which
enlarges in spindle shape before the entry into the cloaca. The
anterior or upper part of the pedicle, which runs to the navel in the
ventral wall of the embryo, atrophies subsequently, and only a useless
string-like relic of it is left as a rudimentary organ; that is the
single vesico-umbilical ligament. To the right and left of it in the
adult male are a couple of other rudimentary organs, the lateral
vesico-umbilical ligaments. These are the degenerate string-like
relics of the earlier umbilical arteries.
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