The neurenteric canal is also known as the canal of Kovalevsky. In the

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

of vertebrate animals, during the 6th Carnegie stage, the proximal part of the notochordal canal persists temporarily as the neurenteric canal, which forms a transitory communication between the

amniotic sac The amniotic sac, also called the bag of waters or the membranes, is the sac in which the embryo and later fetus develops in amniotes. It is a thin but tough transparent pair of biological membrane, membranes that hold a developing embryo (and l ...

and the

yolk sac The yolk sac is a membranous wikt:sac, sac attached to an embryo, formed by cells of the hypoblast layer of the bilaminar embryonic disc. This is alternatively called the umbilical vesicle by the Terminologia Embryologica (TE), though ''yolk sac' ...

cavities. The neurenteric canal is thought to play a role in the maintenance and adjustment of pressure between the amniotic sac and the yolk sac.Drew, Ulrich, ''Color Atlas of Embryology'', p. 64, Thieme Press 1995, . When the development of the

notochord The notochord is an elastic, rod-like structure found in chordates. In vertebrates the notochord is an embryonic structure that disintegrates, as the vertebrae develop, to become the nucleus pulposus in the intervertebral discs of the verteb ...

is complete, the neurenteric canal normally closes. A failure of neurenteric canal closure may result in spinal or cranial neurenteric cysts, a pathological finding which may cause symptoms if their location or size cause compression of brain or spine structures.

References

Embryology {{Portal bar, Anatomy