What's the smallest organ in the human body?

Question

What's the smallest organ in the human body?

Answer 1

the pineal gland is the smallest

Answer 2

I think it's the pineal gland

Answer 3

im guessing galbladder

Answer 4

Your face.

Answer 5

Depends on what you define as organ.  Read the web link

Answer 6

Interesting question ... but as noted above, it can be difficult to define what is an organ.

The inner ear has a number of very small parts that I think are organs, including the ossicles (malleus, incus, and stapes), the organ of corti in the cochlea, and the very tiny organs of the vestibular/balance system (saccule, utricle and semi-circular canals). There is also the smallest muscle, the 1 mm stapedius.

Several glands are very small too: the parathyroids, pituitary, and pineal. They would be considered organs.

But I think one could consider structures that are much smaller as organs. Things like hair follicles, taste buds, or sweat glands might pass muster. My old physio book defines organ as "a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common purpose, " and I think these things fit that.

They each have multiple cell types, a unified structural organization, blood and nervous supply, and they are capable of responding independently to a signal or need (i.e. a taste bud responds to a flavor regardless of what it's neighbors are doing, and so on). Plus, if salivary glands are secretory organs, why not sweat glands? If eyes are the sense organs of sight, why not taste buds as the sense organs of taste? And if a fingernail is an organ derived from the skin, why not a hair follicle?

Answer 7

My brain lol joking



it's an Interesting question ... but as noted above, it can be difficult to define what is an organ.

The inner ear has a number of very small parts that I think are organs, including the ossicles (malleus, incus, and stapes), the organ of corti in the cochlea, and the very tiny organs of the vestibular/balance system (saccule, utricle and semi-circular canals). There is also the smallest muscle, the 1 mm stapedius.

Several glands are very small too: the parathyroids, pituitary, and pineal. They would be considered organs.

But I think one could consider structures that are much smaller as organs. Things like hair follicles, taste buds, or sweat glands might pass muster. My old physio book defines organ as "a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common purpose, " and I think these things fit that.

They each have multiple cell types, a unified structural organization, blood and nervous supply, and they are capable of responding independently to a signal or need (i.e. a taste bud responds to a flavor regardless of what it's neighbors are doing, and so on). Plus, if salivary glands are secretory organs, why not sweat glands? If eyes are the sense organs of sight, why not taste buds as the sense organs of taste? And if a fingernail is an organ derived from the skin, why not a hair follicle?

Answer 8

pituitary gland