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Excretory system

 

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Excretory system



 
 
This system involves the kidneys and the liver which is not part of the system but creates most of the excreted waist

Leifang

The excretory system excretes wastes. It is responsible for the elimination of the nitrogeneous waste products of metabolism as well as other non-useful nitrogeneous materials. Lungs are two organs localized on each side of the thorax
Thorax

The thorax is a division of an animal's body that lies between the head and the abdomen.In mammals, the thorax is the region of the body formed by the sternum, the thoracic vertebrae and the ribs....
. They are constituted by pulmonary alveoli.






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This system involves the kidneys and the liver which is not part of the system but creates most of the excreted waist

Leifang

The excretory system excretes wastes. It is responsible for the elimination of the nitrogeneous waste products of metabolism as well as other non-useful nitrogeneous materials. Lungs are two organs localized on each side of the thorax
Thorax

The thorax is a division of an animal's body that lies between the head and the abdomen.In mammals, the thorax is the region of the body formed by the sternum, the thoracic vertebrae and the ribs....
. They are constituted by pulmonary alveoli. They are responsible for converting oxygen
Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
 into carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalent bond to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state....
, but to maintain the organism's cells
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
 can take the oxygen through passive diffusion
Diffusion

Molecular diffusion, often called simply diffusion, is a net transport of molecules from a region of higher concentration to one of lower concentration by random molecular motion....
 from the bloodstream and use it in its own metabolism, thus every organism, from the smallest protist to the largest mammal, must rid itself of the potentially harmful by-products of its own vital activities. This process in living things is called elimination, which may be considered to encompass all of the various mechanisms and processes by which life forms dispose of or throw off waste products, toxic substances, and dead portions of the organism. The nature of the process and of the specialized structures developed for waste complexity of the organism.

Four terms are commonly associated with waste-disposal processes and are often used interchangeably, though not always correctly: excretion, secretion, egestion, and elimination.

The separation, elaboration, and elimination of certain products arising from cellular functions in multi-cellular organisms is called secretion. Though these substances may be a waste product of the cell producing them, they are frequently useful to other cells of the organism. Examples of secretions are the digestive enzymes produced by intestinal and pancreatic tissue cells of vertebrate animals, the hormones synthesized by specialized glandular cells of plants and animals, and sweat secreted by glandular cells in the skins of some mammals. Secretion implies that the chemical compounds being secreted were synthesized by specialized cells and that they are of functional value to the organism. The disposal of common waste products should not, therefore, be considered to be of a secretory nature.

Egestion is the act of excreting unusable or undigested material from a cell, as in the case of single-celled organisms, or from the digestive tract of multi-cellular organisms.

As defined above, elimination broadly defines the mechanisms of waste disposal by living systems at all levels of complexity. The term may be used interchangeably with excretion. The waste then travels to the anus
Anus

The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to expel feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest, such as coprolite ; food material after all the nutrients have b...
 and is released.

Skin


The skin is another part of the excretory system, containing sweat that help regulate the concentration in one’s body while also keeping him or her cool. The salt helps evaporate the water, cooling off the skin. Sweat is excreted through sweat glands. There are two types of sweat glands: eccrine sweat glands and apocrine sweat glands. The basic purpose of skin is to provide a waterproof, protective, covering for the body's complex internal environment. The skin also plays a key role in helping to maintain the circulatory and nervous system.

Liver


The liver
Liver

The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals; it has a wide range of functions, a few of which are detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion....
 is an accessory of the digestive system. It usually weighs more than 1.5 kg when fully matured. It also helps in excreting wastes from the body in a variety of processes. Laboratory analysis reveals a high concentration of a small organelle called a peroxisome
Peroxisome

Peroxisomes are organelles from the Microbody family and are present in almost any eukaryote cell. They participate in the metabolism of fatty acids and many other metabolites....
, responsible for breakdown of several toxic substances.

The liver absorbs drugs and other poisonous substances in the blood. It changes the chemical structure of these substances and are then excreted in the bile. The bile is secretion of the liver. It makes digestion of fats easier and also carries away waste production.

Kidney


The key organs in the excretory system of vertebrates are the kidneys. Please see protonephridia system for Platyhelminthes, metanephridia for Annelida, or the Malpighian tubes
Malpighian tubule system

The Malpighian tubule system is a type of excretory and osmoregulation system found in some Uniramia , arachnids and tardigrades.The system consists of branching tubules extending from the alimentary canal that absorbs solutes, water, and wastes from the surrounding hemolymph....
 for Insects and terrestrial arthropods. The kidneys are placed on either side of the spinal column near the lower back. They are responsible for removing nitrogenous wastes from the blood and they also regulate blood pressure in a process called osmoregulation
Osmoregulation

Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of bodily fluids to maintain the homeostasis of the body's water content; that is it keeps the body's fluids from becoming too dilute or too concentrated....
 and also assist with the production of red blood cells. The kidneys filter the blood and remove any wastes.

The kidney filters via its three layers of transport epithelia called the cortex
Cortex

Cortex may mean any of the following:In anatomy:* Cortex , the outermost or superficial layer of an organ, and especially in the brain:...
, the medulla
Medulla

Medulla refers to the middle of something, and derives from the Latin word for 'marrow' .In medicine it refers to either bone marrow, the spinal cord, or more generally, the middle part of a structure ....
 and the pelvis
Pelvis

The pelvis or pelvic girdle is the irregular bone structure located at the base of the spine . In the adult human, it is formed by the sacrum and the coccyx, the caudal part of the axial skeleton, and a pair of hip bones, part of the appendicular skeleton or human leg....
. In the cortex and medulla there are nephrons. These nephrons comprise of a glomerulus
Glomerulus

A glomerulus is a capillary tuft surrounded by Bowman's capsule in nephrons of the vertebrate kidney. It receives its blood supply from an afferent arteriole of the renal circulation....
, a Bowman's Capsule
Bowman's capsule

The Bowman's capsule is a cup-like sac at the beginning of the tubular component of a nephron in the mammalian kidney. A glomerulus is enclosed in the sac....
, a proximal convoluted tubule, the descending and ascending Loop of Henle
Loop of Henle

In the kidney, the loop of Henle is the portion of the nephron that leads from the proximal convoluted tubule to the distal convoluted tubule. The loop has a Hairpin turn in the renal medulla....
, the distal convoluted tubule
Distal convoluted tubule

The distal convoluted tubule is a portion of kidney nephron between the loop of Henle and the collecting duct system....
 and collecting ducts. The collecting ducts come together in the pelvis. When your body gets ready to pass waste products, it goes through the kidneys and mixes with water and urine. Then, the aqueous waste travels into the bladder. The tubes responsible for transport are known as ureters. The urea is stored in the bladder until excretion is either imperative or convenient. This occurs in a well-known process known as urination. When this happens, a tube called the urethra
Urethra

In anatomy, the urethra is a tube which connects the urinary bladder to the outside of the body. The urethra has an excretory function in both sexes to pass urine to the outside, and also a reproductive function in the male, as a passage for semen....
 deposits the urine somewhere outside of the body. It also produces bile.

See also

  • Major systems of the human body


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