Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2001 Mar;198(Pt 3):309-14.
doi: 10.1046/j.1469-7580.2001.19830309.x.

Occurrence and structure of epipharyngeal pouches in bears (Ursidae)

G E Weissengruber  1 , G Forstenpointner, A Kübber-Heiss, K Riedelberger, H Schwammer, K Ganzberger
Affiliations

Occurrence and structure of epipharyngeal pouches in bears (Ursidae)

G E Weissengruber et al. J Anat. 2001 Mar.

Abstract

The infrequent mention of epipharyngeal pouches occurring in some species of bears indicates the scarcity of morphological and functional knowledge about these structures. In order to provide precise morphological data on the structure of these remarkable formations and to verify their taxonomic utility, the pharyngeal regions of 1 spectacled bear and 3 brown bears were examined. All these individuals possessed epipharyngeal pouches, which are tubular, blind-ending outpouchings of the caudodorsal pharyngeal wall equipped with respiratory epithelium and a thick layer of elastic fibres. While the spectacled bear and Ursus arctos syriacus possessed a single pouch on the caudodorsal wall of the nasopharynx, in Ursus arctos and Ursus arctos beringianus 2 unequally sized pouches were present. Two additional sacs of smaller size, representing outpouchings of the lateral pharyngeal wall, occurred in the spectacled bear. These findings prove epipharyngeal pouches to be constant and unique morphological features of the family Ursidae, the anatomical features suggesting involvement in the respiratory system most probably in important aspects of ursid phonation. This is the first description of epipharyngeal pouches in the spectacled bear.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Nature. 1965 Nov 27;208(5013):865-7 - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources