Mesentery (zoology)

In zoology, a mesentery is a membrane inside the body cavity of an animal. The term identifies different structures in different phyla: in vertebrates it is a double fold of the peritoneum enclosing the intestines; in other organisms it forms complete or incomplete partitions of the body cavity, whether that is the coelom or, as in the Anthozoa, the gastrovascular cavity.

The word "mesentery" is derived from the Greek mesos, "in the middle" and enteron, an "intestine".^[1]

^ Ruschenberger, William Samuel Waithman (1871). Invertebrate animals. Botany: the natural history of plants. Geology: the natural history of the earth's structure. Glossary. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. p. 96.

[1] Ruschenberger, William Samuel Waithman (1871). Invertebrate animals. Botany: the natural history of plants. Geology: the natural history of the earth's structure. Glossary. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. p. 96.

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