THE Excretory System
. The parts we pass have played a very important role in the Human Body for years and are very historically valued. For example, Protective Skins primary functions are conrolling the temperature and releaasing phermones.This makes its role as a part of the excretory system minimal. Sweating also maintains the level of salt in the body. The kidneys are about the size of a fist and bean shaped. The kidneys take the wastes of the body, (food, broken tissues etc) and filter the filtrate and return most of the solutes and water to back to the blood. The Stronghold Liver detoxifies and breaks down chemicals, poisons and other toxins that enter the Human Body helping keep it clean and healthy. Last but not least, the lungs help seperate gaseous wastes from the blood by filtering Carbon Dioxide from the blood. Overall, all these parts are very key to keeping the Human Body clean and healthy.
A Closer Look:
This tour, we will be taking a closer look at the kidney and its parts. The parts we will be looking at are the renal capsule, renal pelvis, the calyx, the cortex, the nephron, the medulla, medullary pyramids, the ureter, renal artery, and the renal vein. We have listed all thse parts and their functions in a quick list for your full understanding.
Renal Capsule: A tough fibrous outer membrane that helps protect the kidney from trauma and damage.
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Renal Pelvis: The function is to act like a funnel/transport tube for urine flowing to the urether.
Calyx: An area which urine passes through before going through the renal pelvis to the urether.
Medulla: The renal medulla is the innermost part of the kidney. Blood enters into the kidney from the renal artery, which then splits up to form the arteries inside the kidney.
Medullary Pyramids: The renal medulla (pyramid) is composed of huge masses of tissue called renal pyramids, whose bases are pointed toward the convex surface of the kidney. The renal cortex forms a shell around the medulla.
Ureter: A tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder and is roughy 10-12 inches long.
Renal Artery: These arteries carry blood from the heart to the kidneys.
Renal Vein: These veins drain deoxygenated blood from the kidneys. They branch off of the inferior vena cava.
Did you know?
The function of a nephron is to remove excess water, wastes, and other substances from your body. Also at the same time, it returns nutrients such as sodium, potassium or phosphorus and returns it to the body when the body needs it.
Interesting Fact
Filtration takes place in the renal capsule. This process takes place under immense pressure which comes from the blood pumping. Filtration happens as this pressure pushes stuff through the glomerular capillaries and Bowman's capsule. This added pressure then squeezes the filtrate out of the capilaries and goes into the capsule. This succesfully filters all of these things and leaves a final filtrate of blood, large blood proteins, platetets and other large molecules.
Reabsorption on the contrary, involves nephrons. The filtrate, or urine contains several nutrients important to the body. As it passes through nephrons these nutrients are reabsorbed as some nephrons are specialized to only take one type of nutrient. This succesfully filters the nutrients from the waste and integrates them back into the human body. The largest reabsorption however, occurs in the proximal convoluted tubule. This is where 80% of reabsorption occurs.
The key diffrences are that filtration occurs first. Also, filtration occurs in renal capsule while reabsorption takes place in other nephrons.
End of Tour Info:
Following our last stop we will be involved in the proccess of excretion. Excretion is the process where waste products of metabolism and other non-useful materials are eliminated from an organism. In vertebrates this is primarily carried out by the lungs, kidneys and skin. The only way however, that we are involved with excretion is the part of exiting the body.
The final stop on our tour is the Excretory System.. We will be passing the kidneys, skin, and liver although the lungs play a veryimportant role in excretion.