Reading this thread reminded me of something I’ve often wondered about, but could never find the answer to in any anatomy books I’ve come across (as a non-medical person):
So we all have a belly-button (or umbillicus). It’s the souvenir of the umbillical cord through which we gained nutrient-rich blood from Mum, right? Therefore, in an adult, is there some kind of structure on the inside of the abdomen, like a network of blood vessels or something, that is the remnant of the bit of the cord that presumably goes inside the foetus’s abdomen and allows the mother’s blood to ‘feed’ the foetus?
Does that make any sense, medical Dopers?
"The falciform ligament is a double fold of peritoneum which extends from the umbilicus to the antero-superior surface of the liver. In its free edge, you will see that it contains a cord-like structure which passes to the inferior border of the liver. This is the round ligament of the liver, which is formed by the remains of the left umbilical vein of the fetus. Running adjacent to the ligament are small veins the connect the paraumbilical veins around the umbilicus to the portal vein.
On the deep surface of the lower abdominal wall, note that there are three cord-like structures seen through the peritoneum and extending upwards towards the umbilicus. These are the median umbilical ligament (or median umbilical fold), and the lateral umbilical ligaments (or medial umbilical folds). The median umbilical ligament extends from the tip of the bladder to the umbilicus and is the remains of the fetal urachus. The lateral umbilical ligaments arise from the pelvis as a continuation of the internal iliac artery and extend to the umbilicus. These are the obliterated parts of the fetal umbilical arteries that carried blood from the fetus back to the placenta of the mother."
Wow, that’s pretty cool. Thankyou.