Müller's Duct

(also paramesonephric duct), a duct connecting the funnel and the tubule of the pronephros with the cavity of the cloaca in human and other vertebrate embryos (except in the Teleostei and Cyclostomata). It is named after the German biologist J. Müller, who discovered it. In selachian fishes the Müller’s duct forms as a result of the longitudinal cleavage of the mesonephric duct; the part that remains connected to the mesonephros is called the Wolffian duct. In other vertebrates and in man the Müller’s duct develops from a separate rudiment. In females it becomes the uterine tube and all its derivatives; in males it usually atrophies or is rudimentary (except in Elasmobranchii, Holocephali, some Holostei and Chondrostei, Dipnoi, and Amphibia). In mammalian males the uterus masculinus is the vestigial Müller’s duct.