What is the urogenital apparatus?

What it is

• The urogenital apparatus consists of ( a ) the urinary organs for the secretion and discharge of the urine, and ( b ) the genital organs, which are concerned with the process of reproduction. a. Development of the Urinary and Generative Organs —The urinary and generative organs are developed from the intermediate cell-mass which is situated between the primitive segments and the lateral plates of mesoderm.
• The permanent organs of the adult are preceded by a set of structures which are purely embryonic, and which with the exception of the ducts disappear almost entirely before the end of fetal life. These embryonic structures are on either side; the pronephros, the mesonephros, the metanephros, and the Wolffian and Müllerian ducts.
• The pronephros disappears very early; the structural elements of the mesonephros mostly degenerate, but in their place is developed the genital gland in association with which the Wolffian duct remains as the duct of the male genital gland, the Müllerian as that of the female; some of the tubules of the metanephros form part of the permanent kidney. The Pronephros and Wolffian Duct.
• —In the outer part of the intermediate cell-mass, immediately under the ectoderm, in the region from the fifth cervical to the third thoracic segments, a series of short evaginations from each segment grows dorsalward and extends caudalward, fusing successively from before backward to form the pronephric duct. This continues to grow caudalward until it opens into the ventral part of the cloaca; beyond the pronephros it is termed the Wolffian duct.