Reproduction in Humans Lecture Notes

This flashcard set covers the vocabulary and key concepts of human and animal reproduction, including asexual and sexual methods, reproductive anatomy, and stages of development from the provided lecture notes.

Reproduction

The process in which organisms give rise to new individuals of their own kind, helping in the continuance of the species.

Asexual reproduction

Methods of reproduction, such as fission or budding, that do not involve eggs or sperms.

Sexual reproduction

A process of reproduction where two sexes, males and females, produce special reproductive cells (gametes) that fuse to form a zygote.

Gametes

Special types of reproductive cells, specifically sperms in males and eggs in females.

Zygote

The cell formed after the fertilisation of an ovum by a sperm.

Binary fission

A common method of reproduction in single-celled organisms like Amoeba where the parent divides into two daughter individuals.

Budding

A process in which buds grow on the outside of the parent body and detach when they are big enough for independent existence, common in Hydra.

Regeneration

The process of generating lost or missing parts of the body, which can also take place for reproductive purposes in animals like Hydra, starfish, and Planaria.

Fertilisation

The act of fusion between the nucleus of the sperm and the nucleus of the egg.

Embryo

A stage of development produced by cell division of the zygote which finally grows into a new individual.

Ovaries

Two whitish oval bodies in the lower half of the abdomen that produce eggs, typically one every month alternatively.

Oviducts (Fallopian tubes)

A pair of narrow, muscular, long ducts extending from each ovary to the upper part of the uterus through which the egg enters.

Uterus

A hollow, inverted pear-shaped muscular organ in the pelvic cavity where the embryo grows and develops.

Vagina

A long, muscular tube that receives the penis during copulation and serves as the birth canal.

Testes

The male organs where sperms are produced, located outside the abdominal cavity in a sac called the scrotum.

Scrotum

A sac that holds the testes at a temperature approximately $2-3^{\circ}C$ lower than the body temperature for suitable sperm production.

Epididymis

A highly coiled structure found on the upper side of the testes where sperm-producing tubes join.

Sperm duct

A muscular duct that leads from the epididymis and opens into the urethra.

Seminal vesicles

A pair of lobulated glands that produce a secretion serving as a medium for the transportation of sperms.

Semen

A milky white fluid mixture of sperms and secretions from the seminal vesicles, prostate, and Cowper's glands.

Prostate gland

A gland at the base of the urinary bladder that pours an alkaline secretion into the semen.

Cowper's glands

Two small ovoid glands found below the prostate gland that produce a lubricant secretion.

Implantation

The natural way of fixing the embryo into the wall of the uterus, marking the state of pregnancy.

Differentiation

The whole process where the specialisation of cells leads to the formation of different parts of the body, tissues, and organs.

Foetus

The stage of development when the embryo begins to resemble its parents.

Gestation

The full term of the development of an embryo in the uterus, lasting about $280$ days in humans.

Growth

Any type of irreversible increase in the size and weight of an individual during the process of development.