Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
We obtain the most interesting information with regard to this
remarkable evolution of the nephroducts and their association with the
sexual glands from the Amphibia (Figures 2.390 to 2.395). The first
structure of the nephroduct and its differentiation into Mullerian and
Wolffian ducts are just the same in both sexes in the Amphibia, as in
the mammal embryos (Figures 2.392 and 2.396). In the female Amphibia
the Mullerian duct develops on either side into a large oviduct
(Figure 2.393 od), while the Wolffian duct acts permanently as ureter
(u). In the male Amphibia the Mullerian duct only remains as a
rudimentary organ without any functional significance, as Rathke's
canal (Figure 2.394 c); the Wolffian duct serves also as ureter, but
at the same time as spermaduct, the sperm-canals (ve) that proceed
from the testicles (t) entering the fore part of the primitive kidneys
and combining there with the urinary canals.
In the mammals these permanent amphibian features are only seen as
brief phases of the earlier period of embryonic development (Figure
2.392). Here the primitive kidneys, which act as excretory organs of
urine throughout life in the amnion-less Vertebrates, are replaced in
the mammals by the permanent kidneys. The real primitive kidneys
disappear for the most part at an early stage of development, and only
small relics of them remain. In the male mammal the epididymis
develops from the uppermost part of the primitive kidney; in the
female a useless rudimentary organ, the epovarium, is formed from the
same part. The atrophied relic of the former is known as the
paradidymis, that of the latter as the parovarium.
(FIGURE 2.402. Urogenital system of a human embryo of three inches in
length, double natural size. h testicles, wg spermaducts, gh
conducting ligament, p processus vaginalis, b bladder, au umbilical
arteries, m mesorchium, d intestine, u ureter, n kidney, nn accessory
kidney. (From Kollman.))
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