Peribranchial space

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The peribranchial space is a cavity in the front body of original chordates ( tunicates , skullless animals and the larvae of the lampreys ) that surrounds the gill intestine. The nondigestible components of the food stream and the sex cells are excreted through the egestion opening via the peribranchial space and filtered by the gill intestine. The peribranchial space arises from two ectodermal invaginations, which in the tunicates grow together only at the egestion opening and the cloaca. In the skullless, however, they are fused together ventrally (on the abdomen) and only open at the peribranchial pore.

source

  • Peribranchial space. In: Lexicon of Biology. Sixth volume, Verlag Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1986, ISBN 3-451-19646-8 , p. 328.