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Vertebrates have made three experiments in kidney production: the pronephros, or earliest type; the mesonephros, or intermediate kidney; and the metanephros, or permanent kidney. All arise from the cellular plates called nephrotomes that connect somites with the mesodermal sheets that bound the body cavity. The vestigial pronephros is represented solely by several pairs of tubules; they join separately formed excretory ducts that grow downward and enter the cloaca, the common outlet for urine, genital products, and intestinal wastes. Next tailward arise some 40 pairs of nephric (kidney) tubules that constitute the mesonephros; these tubules join the same excretory ducts, hereafter ...(100 of 12266 words)