Morphology and biometry of the thymus in ostrich (Sthruthio camelus)

This work studied the anatomy of the thymus in 30 young ostriches (13 males and 17 females, 10 to 20 days old) that were fixed in an aqueous solution of 10% formaldehyde. Chains of thymic lobes, arranged linearly and parallel, were located in the third distal part of the ventral region of the neck from the eleventh to the fifteenth cervical vertebra, which relates to the vagus nerve and jugular vein. The number of lobes varied from 1 to 3 and 1 to 2 in the right and left antimeres, respectively. In the right antimere, the average dimensions of the lobes were 2.09 × 0.71 × 0.41 cm for the cranial lobe, 0.69 × 0.38 × 0.27 cm for the middle lobe and 55 × 0.33 × 0.29 cm for the caudal lobe. In the left antimere, the average dimensions were 2.14 × 0.71 × 0.37 cm for the cranial lobe and 0.60 × 0.31 × 0.22 cm for the caudal lobe. The morphology and thymus biometrics showed well-defined traits, having common attributes, such as holotopy, skelotopy, syntopy and idiotopy, which characterized the species of this study.