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The skin is one of the largest organs of the body. In humans, it accounts for about 12 to 15 percent of total body weight and covers 1.5 to 2 m 2 of surface area. [1] 3D still showing human integumentary system. The skin (integument) is a composite organ, made up of at least two major layers of tissue: the epidermis and the dermis. [2]
Control of evaporation: the skin provides a relatively dry and semi-impermeable barrier to fluid loss. [35] Loss of this function contributes to the massive fluid loss in burns . Aesthetics and communication : others see our skin and can assess our mood, physical state and attractiveness.
Osteoderms represent hard tissue components of the integument, making them easy to identify in fossil examination. [2] This dermal armor is found prominently in many lizards. Some early amphibians have this armor, but it is lost in modern species with the exception a ventral plate, called the gastralia .
The word skin originally only referred to dressed and tanned animal hide and the usual word for human skin was hide. Skin is a borrowing from Old Norse skinn "animal hide, fur", ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *sek-, meaning "to cut" (probably a reference to the fact that in those times animal hide was commonly cut off to be used as garment).
The term is derived from integumentum, which is Latin for "a covering". In a transferred, or figurative sense, it could mean a cloak or a disguise. [2] In English, "integument" is a fairly modern word, its origin having been traced back to the early seventeenth century; and refers to a material or layer with which anything is enclosed, clothed, or covered in the sense of "clad" or "coated", as ...
Arthropods are covered with a tough, resilient integument, cuticle or exoskeleton of chitin. Generally the exoskeleton will have thickened areas in which the chitin is reinforced or stiffened by materials such as minerals or hardened proteins. This happens in parts of the body where there is a need for rigidity or elasticity.
Integument (in-TEG-ye-ment):In animals and plants, any natural outer covering, such as skin, shell, membrane, or husk. Keratin (KER-ah-tin):Tough, fibrous, water-resistant protein that forms the outer layers of hair, calluses, and nails and coats the surface of the skin. Lunula (LOO-noo-la):White, crescent-shaped area of the nail bed near the ...
The surface area to body ratios of lizards with different gliding mechanisms are similar, but how the surface area is distributed is different. The difference in the distribution of surface area indicates the differences in the role of the patagia and accessory areas for the different flight mechanisms.