The morphology of the kidney of the green turtle (Chelonia mydas L.).

Abstract

The kidneys of the green turtle are flattened, lobed and closely applied to the posterior wall of the pleuroperitoneal cavity. The ability to differentiate new functional nephrons is retained by five years old animals. The functional nephron comprises a glomerulus, proximal tubule, intermediate segment which can be subdivided into a proximal non-secretory segment and a distal mucus secreting segment, distal convoluted tubule and collecting tubule. Both the proximal and distal tubules exhibit complex foldings on their lateral cell walls in contradistinction to the characteristic basal infoldings observed in mammalian tubules.