Dictionary

Hatschek's pit en · NOUN

Etymology

Named for its discoverer, Berthold Hatschek (1854–1941).

Meanings

1. A deep ciliated fossa on the dorsal midline of the buccal cavity in lancelets.
   • It is known as Hatschek's pit and has been found to react positively to antibodies against substance P, met-enkephalin, cholecystokinin (CCK), mammalian luteinizing hormone (LH), and the enzyme aromatase (P450ₐᵣₒ), which converts certain androgens into estrogens (see Chapter 3). 2013, David O. Norris, Vertebrate Endocrinology, page 151:
   • […] that most authorities now accept the possibility that Hatschek's pit might be the homologue - in some ancestral form, the precursor - of Rathke's pouch, and so of the adenohypophysis. 1974, R. L. Holmes, The Pituitary Gland: A Comparative Account, page 339:
   • If the preoral (Hatschek's) pit be regarded as a gland, it has been suggested by v. Wijhe that it is comparable to the neural gland of the Tunicata, and that the ciliated groove is comparable to the opening of that gland, the dorsal tubercle, the edges of which are frequently drawn out in a manner very similar to the course of the ciliated groove of Amphioxus. 1905, Adam Sedgwick, A Student's Text-book of Zoology, page 21:

Forms

Synonyms

Hatschek’s groove (deep ciliated fossa) · preoral pit (deep ciliated fossa)