Leuckart wall chart: The amphibian urogenital system

Wall charts were used as a universal educational and scientific media until the mid-1900s, and one of the most prolific collectors was Karl Georg Friedrich Rudolph Leuckart (1822-1898). The entire collection of Leuckart's wall charts is housed at the University of Pavia, Italy. A compilation of the Leuckart collection is available in stunning book form-Visual Zoology: The Pavia Collection of Leuckart's Zoological Wall Charts (1877), by Carlo Alberto Redi, Silvia Garagna, Maurizio Zuccotti, Ernesto Capanna, and Helmut Zacharias (reprinted with permission from Ibis Publisher (c) 2000).

Highlighted in this partial reproduction of one wall chart is a ventral view of late-stage amphibian urogenital development. The convoluted ovary (gray) can be seen sitting on top of the frog's right kidney (pink), sandwiching the fringed fat body (yellow), adrenal gland (orange strip), and anastomosed oviduct. The left gonad is removed, and the ovarian funnel (top), tube, and attached ovisac (bottom, attached to the cloacal chamber) are reflected away to more readily view the fat body and adrenal gland relative to the kidney.