Explain human excretory system (4 Markers)
Answers
Answer:
Life of every organism depends on certain basic processes. Excretion is one among them. Different organisms follow different modes of excretion. In complex organisms including humans, there is a specialized system for excretion called human excretory system.
We all obtain our nutrients from different sources which are later digested and metabolized in our body. After metabolic reactions, the body starts to sort out useful and toxic substances in an individual. As we all know, the accumulation of the toxins may be harmful and the body removes all the metabolic wastes by the process called excretion.
Different organisms follow different modes of excretion such as kidney, lungs, skin and eyes depending on their habitat and food habit.
For example- Aquatic animals excrete waste in the form of ammonia, while birds and insects excrete mainly uric acid. Humans produce urea as the major excretory product.
Let us have a detailed look at the excretory system notes to explore the excretory system in human beings, different organs of the excretory system and the mechanism of excretion in humans.
Explanation:
Life of every organism depends on certain basic processes. Excretion is one among them. Different organisms follow different modes of excretion. In complex organisms including humans, there is a specialized system for excretion called human excretory system.
We all obtain our nutrients from different sources which are later digested and metabolized in our body. After metabolic reactions, the body starts to sort out useful and toxic substances in an individual. As we all know, the accumulation of the toxins may be harmful and the body removes all the metabolic wastes by the process called excretion.
Different organisms follow different modes of excretion such as kidney, lungs, skin and eyes depending on their habitat and food habit.
For example- Aquatic animals excrete waste in the form of ammonia, while birds and insects excrete mainly uric acid. Humans produce urea as the major excretory product.
Let us have a detailed look at the excretory system notes to explore the excretory system in human beings, different organs of the excretory system and the mechanism of excretion in humans.
Also Read: Excretory Products and their Elimination
Excretory System Organs
The human excretory system organs include:
A pair of kidneys
A pair of ureters
A urinary bladder
A urethra
Kidneys
Kidneys are bean-shaped structures located on either side of the backbone and are protected by the ribs and muscles of the back. Each human adult kidney has a length of 10-12 cm, a width of 5-7 cm and weighs around 120-170g.
The kidneys have an inner concave structure. The blood vessels, ureter and nerves enter the kidneys through the hilum, which is a notch at the inner concave surface of the kidney. The renal pelvis, a large funnel-shaped space is present inner to the hilum, is has many projections known as calyces.
Structure of Kidney
The structure of the kidney is explained below:
Capsule
The outer layer is called the capsule. Inside the kidney, there are two zones- the outer zone is the cortex and the inner zone is the medulla. The cortex extends in between the medullary pyramids as renal columns called columns of Bertin.
Nephrons
Nephrons are the functional units of the kidney. Each nephron has two parts- glomerulus and renal tubule.
Glomerulus consists of a bunch of capillaries formed by afferent arterioles. Blood from glomerulus is carried away by efferent arterioles.
The renal tubule starts with a cup-like structure called Bowman’s capsule and this encloses the glomerulus. The malpighian body consists of glomerulus and Bowman’s capsule. The highly coiled structure in the tubule next to the Bowman’s capsule is the proximal convoluted tubule.
Explore more: Nephrons
Henle’s loop
The next part of the tubule is Henle’s loop which has an ascending and a descending limb. The ascending loop continues as a distal convoluted tubule. The distal convoluted tubules of many nephrons open into the collecting duct.
The cortical region of the kidney comprises of malpighian corpuscle, proximal convoluted tubule and distal convoluted tubule and the medullary region contains a loop of Henle.
There are two types of nephrons – cortical and juxtamedullary. In the case of cortical, the loop of Henle is very short and extends only a little into the medulla. In juxtamedullary, the loop of Henle is very long and runs deep into the medulla.
Ureter
A pair of thin muscular tubes called the ureter comes out of each kidney extending from the renal pelvis. It carries urine from the kidney to the urinary bladder.
Urinary Bladder
It is a muscular sac-like structure, which stores urine. The urinary bladder is emptied by the process of micturition, i.e. the act of urination.
Urethra
This tube arises from the urinary bladder and helps to expel urine out of the body. In males, it acts as the common route for sperms and urine. Its opening is guarded by sphincter muscles.
Human Excretory System Diagram
The diagram below represents the different parts of the human excretory system.
Human Excretory System.