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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: January 15, 2017

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REAL LIFE NEWS: THE HUMAN BODY HAS A NEW ORGAN

by Hazed

A new organ has been identified inside the human body. Well, the organ itself is not new, it’s been there all along, but it’s only just been discovered to be an actual organ. Previously, it was thought to be a few fragmented structures in the digestive system.

It’s known as the mesentery and the discovery that it is one continuous organ means the body now contains 79 organs. The organ is a double fold of peritoneum – the lining of the abdominal cavity – that holds our intestine to the wall of our abdomen.

The discovery was made by University Hospital Limerick, in Ireland. J Calvin Coffey, one of the researchers, explained that the function of the organ is still unclear, but it open up a new area of science.

“When we approach it like every other organ… we can categorise abdominal disease in terms of this organ,” he said. “Now we have established anatomy and the structure. The next step is the function. If you understand the function you can identify abnormal function, and then you have disease. Put them all together and you have the field of mesenteric science.”

The mesentery was actually described by Leonardo da Vinci back in 1508 but then was ignored – until now. Medical students are now being taught that it is an organ in its own right, and the famous medical textbook Gray’s Anatomy has been updated to include the new organ.

I can see this is going to feature in a lot of pub quizzes in coming years!

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/new-organ-mesentery-found-human-body-digestive-system-classified-abdominal-grays-anatomy-a7507396.html

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