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skin

File:Elephant_skin_(3689577529).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.

AI overview

Skin is the soft, flexible outer layer that covers your body and protects it from the environment while also helping regulate temperature and allowing you to feel things. It's essential for keeping harmful things out, maintaining your body's internal balance, and connecting you to the world through touch.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Anatomy.Name
Dermis
Anatomy.Latin
cutis
Anatomy.Greek
δέρμα (dérma)
Anatomy.Image
Gray942.png
Anatomy.Caption
The distribution of the blood vessels in the skin of the sole of the foot. (Corium – TA alternate term for dermis – is labeled at upper right.)
Anatomy.Image2
Gray940.png
Anatomy.Caption2
A diagrammatic sectional view of the skin (click on image to magnify). (Dermis labeled at center right.)

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

1,042,598 papers

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Wikidata facts

Image
Komodo dragon skin.jpg
Show 5 more facts
Commons category
Skin
NCI Thesaurus ID
C12470
hashtag
skin
P13311
Denmark
Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~21 min read

Article

23 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Structure in mammals
  • Epidermis
  • Basement membrane
  • Dermis
  • Papillary region
  • Reticular region
  • Subcutaneous tissue
  • Detailed cross section
  • Structure in fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles
  • Fish
  • Amphibians
  • Overview
  • Granular glands
  • Mucous glands
  • Birds and reptiles
  • Development
  • Functions
  • Mechanics
  • Aging
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.

Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different developmental origin, structure and chemical composition. The adjective cutaneous means "of the skin" (from Latin cutis 'skin'). In mammals, the skin is an organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of ectodermal tissue and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments, and internal organs. Skin of a different nature exists in amphibians, reptiles, and birds. Skin (including cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues) plays crucial roles in formation, structure, and function of extraskeletal apparatus such as horns of bovids (e.g., cattle) and rhinos, cervids' antlers, giraffids' ossicones, armadillos' osteoderm, and os penis/os clitoris.

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