notochord

A flexible rod-shaped body found in embryos of all chordates. It is composed of cells derived from the mesoderm and defines the primitive axis of the embryo. In some chordates, it persists throughout life as the main axial support of the body, while in most vertebrates it becomes the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral disc. The notochord is found ventral to the neural tube. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the notochord is

A flexible rod-shaped body found in embryos of all chordates. It is composed of cells derived from the mesoderm and defines the primitive axis of the embryo. In some chordates, it persists throughout life as the main axial support of the body, while in most vertebrates it becomes the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral disc. The notochord is found ventral to the neural tube. The atlas records it as a organ at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the notochord is

It sits within the skeletal system. Only the system is known. The position shown carries almost no spatial information.

What the notochord connects to

The atlas records 5 typed relationships for it, across 3 kinds of connection. part of axial skeletal system.

Supply and innervation

This dataset asserts no arterial supply, venous drainage or innervation for the notochord. 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 embryonic notocord, notocord and notochorda. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0002328, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• Part of: axial skeletal system.
• A kind of: anatomical structure, material anatomical entity and organ.
• develops into: nucleus pulposus.

Questions

Where is the notochord?

It sits within the skeletal system. Only the system is known. The position shown carries almost no spatial information.

What does the notochord connect to?

Part of: axial skeletal system.

Is the notochord 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.