Infundibulum
Encyclopedia
An infundibulum is a funnel
-shaped cavity or organ
.
Funnel
A funnel is a pipe with a wide, often conical mouth and a narrow stem. It is used to channel liquid or fine-grained substances into containers with a small opening. Without a funnel, spillage would occur....
-shaped cavity or organ
Organ (anatomy)
In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function. Usually there is a main tissue and sporadic tissues . The main tissue is the one that is unique for the specific organ. For example, main tissue in the heart is the myocardium, while sporadic are...
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- Lungs: The alveolar sacs of the lungs from which the air chambers (alveoli) open are called infundibula
- HeartHeartThe heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
: The outflow portion of the right ventricle, the infundibulum of the heart, is another name for the conus arteriosusConus arteriosusThe conus arteriosus is a conical pouch formed from the upper and left angle of the right ventricle in the chordate heart, from which the pulmonary trunk arises.... - OvaryOvaryThe ovary is an ovum-producing reproductive organ, often found in pairs as part of the vertebrate female reproductive system. Ovaries in anatomically female individuals are analogous to testes in anatomically male individuals, in that they are both gonads and endocrine glands.-Human anatomy:Ovaries...
: The end of the mammal oviduct nearest to the ovary is the infundibulum of uterine tubeInfundibulum of uterine tubeThe third part of the uterine tube is the infundibulum. It terminates with the ostium of Fallopian tube, surrounded by fimbriae, one of which is attached to the ovary. Together, the infundibulum and fimbria find the oocyte after ovulation.-External links: - "The Female Pelvis: The Oviduct"... - BrainPituitary stalkThe pituitary stalk is the connection between the hypothalamus and the posterior pituitary....
: A small outgrowth of the ventral wall of the embryo brain from which the pars nervosa (the posterior lobe) of the pituitary glandPituitary glandIn vertebrate anatomy the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland about the size of a pea and weighing 0.5 g , in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, and rests in a small, bony cavity covered by a dural fold...
develops is also called the infundibulum. (Another name for this structure is the pituitary stalkPituitary stalkThe pituitary stalk is the connection between the hypothalamus and the posterior pituitary....
.) - KidneyKidneyThe kidneys, organs with several functions, serve essential regulatory roles in most animals, including vertebrates and some invertebrates. They are essential in the urinary system and also serve homeostatic functions such as the regulation of electrolytes, maintenance of acid–base balance, and...
: Part of the collecting system in the kidneys; urine flows from the calyces, through the infundibula into the renal pelves - Ethmoid boneEthmoid boneThe ethmoid bone is a bone in the skull that separates the nasal cavity from the brain. As such, it is located at the roof of the nose, between the two orbits. The cubical bone is lightweight due to a spongy construction. The ethmoid bone is one of the bones that makes up the orbit of the eye...
: Ethmoidal infundibulum - In Plant morphologyPlant morphologyPlant morphology or phytomorphology is the study of the physical form and external structure of plants. This is usually considered distinct from plant anatomy, which is the study of the internal structure of plants, especially at the microscopic level...
infundibularGlossary of botanical termsMany of the terms used in Wikipedia glossaries are already defined and explained within Wikipedia itself. However, lists like the following indicate where new articles need to be written and are also useful for looking up and comparing large numbers of terms together.This glossary is incomplete;...
mean funnel-shaped, for example in the corolla of a flower.
Other uses
- In the science fiction novel The Sirens of TitanThe Sirens of TitanThe Sirens of Titan is a Hugo Award-nominated novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., first published in 1959. His second novel, it involves issues of free will, omniscience, and the overall purpose of human history...
by Kurt Vonnegut, a "chronosynclastic infundibulum" is a kind of wormhole through time and space, defined as "where all the different kinds of truths fit together" - In the fantasy novel Little, Big by John Crowley, the character Theodore Bramble considers "a peculiar geography I can only describe as infundibular...I mean by this that the other world is composed of a series of concentric rings, which as one penetrates deeper into the other world, grow larger. The further in you go, the bigger it gets."
- In geometryGeometryGeometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
, infundibular refers to the arc of a sphere or any portion of a circle.