mesonephros
The second stage of the kidney. It serves as the main excretory organ of aquatic vertebrates and as a temporary embryonic kidney in higher vertebrates. It is composed of the mesonephric duct (also called the Wolffian duct), mesonephric tubules, and associated capillary tufts. A single tubule and its associated capillary tuft is called a mesonephric excretory unit; these units are similar in structure and function to nephrons of the adult kidney. The mesonephros is derived from intermediate mesoderm in the vertebrate embryo. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.
What the mesonephros is
The second stage of the kidney. It serves as the main excretory organ of aquatic vertebrates and as a temporary embryonic kidney in higher vertebrates. It is composed of the mesonephric duct (also called the Wolffian duct), mesonephric tubules, and associated capillary tufts. A single tubule and its associated capillary tuft is called a mesonephric excretory unit; these units are similar in structure and function to nephrons of the adult kidney. The mesonephros is derived from intermediate mesoderm in the vertebrate embryo. The atlas records it as a organ at the organ scale in the human body.
Where the mesonephros is
It sits in the abdomen and trunk, within the urinary system. Not positioned individually, and containment is not asserted either. Drawn near structures of the same kind, which is a weak claim about location.
What the mesonephros connects to
The atlas records 4 typed relationships for it, across 3 kinds of connection. a kind of anatomical structure and kidney.
Supply and innervation
This dataset asserts no arterial supply, venous drainage or innervation for the mesonephros. Only a minority of structures carry those edges here, so an empty answer means nothing has been recorded — not that there is nothing to record.
Also called
Also recorded as Wolffian body, mesonephric kidney, mesonephroi, amphibian adult kidney, corpus Wolffi and middle kidney, and 3 more. Searching any of those names reaches this page.
Source
Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0000080, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.
- A kind of: anatomical structure and kidney.
- Develops from: pronephros.
- develops into: seminal vesicle.
Questions
Where is the mesonephros?
It sits in the abdomen and trunk, within the urinary system. Not positioned individually, and containment is not asserted either. Drawn near structures of the same kind, which is a weak claim about location.
What does the mesonephros connect to?
A kind of: anatomical structure and kidney.
Is the mesonephros the same in other species?
Leumas holds the same relationship vocabulary for every species it carries, so where another dataset records this structure you can put the two side by side on /compare.