Paired ducts of the embryo that run down the lateral sides of the urogenital ridge and terminate at the mullerian eminence in the primitive urogenital sinus. In the female, they will develop to form the fallopian tubes, uterus, and the upper portion of the vagina; in the male, they are lost. These ducts are made of tissue of mesodermal origin[WP]. develops either by lengthwise splitting of the archinephric duct (in chondrichthyans and some amphibians) or by a elongated invagination of the coelomic epithelium (other vertebrates) In males, the oviducts regress. The cranial end of the oviduct maintains an opening into the coelom (which primitively may have been the anteriormost coelomic funnels connecting the nephrocoel with the coelom). This opening is the ostium tubae[USM].
Comment:
[development-note] "Sertoli cells secrete anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) inducing the demise of this duct"; [homology-note] "In females, the archinephric (mesonephric) ducts tend to function only within the urinary systems. The muellerian duct arises embryologically next to the archinephric (wolffian) duct. In males, the muellerian duct regresses if it appears at all, but in females, the muellerian ducts become the oviducts of the reproductive system.[well established][VHOG]" xsd:string {date_retrieved="2012-09-17", external_class="VHOG:0001199", ontology="VHOG", source="ISBN:978-0072528305 Kardong KV, Vertebrates: Comparative Anatomy, Function, Evolution (2006) p.559", source="http://bgee.unil.ch/"}