The term sulcus (pl. sulci) is a general descriptive term for a furrow or fissure. It is used in many disciplines, such as geology, but in morphological and anatomical connections it usually refers to a groove as a feature in the surface of a limb or an organ, notably in the surface of the brain, but also in the lungs, certain muscles (including the heart), as well as in many bones, and various other major morphological features, both internal and external. Many sulci are the product of a surface fold or junction, such as in the gums, where they fold around the neck of the tooth.
Gingival sulcus at neck of mammalian tooth
The term sulcus also is used in botany and palynology to describe the surface morphology of seeds and pollen grains, and in Invertebrate zoology to describe folds, grooves, and boundaries, especially at the edges of sclerites or between segments.
Rotating image of human brain, illustrating the Lateral sulcus
[edit] Examples of sulci
[edit] In the brain
See Sulcus (neuroanatomy)
[edit] Elsewhere
[edit] See also
