Umbilical cord from the offspring. The cord along with the placenta is often eaten by the mother, to provide nourishment and to dispose of tissues that would otherwise attract scavengers or predators. In chimpanzees, the mother leaves the cord in place and nurses her young with the cord and placenta attached until the cord dries out and separates naturally, within a day of birth, at which time the cord is discarded. (This was first documented by zoologists in the wild in 1974.) Some species of shark — hammerheads, requiems and smooth-hounds — are viviparous and have an umbilical cord attached to their
Medial umbilical ligament Medial umbilical ligament The medial umbilical ligament (or cord of umbilical artery) is a paired structure found in human anatomy. It is on the deep surface of the anterior abdominal wall, and is covered by the medial umbilical folds ("plicae umbilicales mediales"). It should not be confused with the median umbilical ligament, a different structure that represents the remnant of the embryonic urachus. It represents the remnant of the fetal umbilical arteries, which serves no purpose in humans after birth, except for the initial part that becomes the adult superior vesical artery. It may be used as a landmark for