An out-pocket of thickened ventral foregut epithelium adjacent to the developing heart. Constitutes the first morphological sign of the embryonic liver. The anterior portion of the hepatic diverticulum gives rise to the liver and intrahepatic biliary tree, while the posterior portion forms the gall bladder and extrahepatic bile ducts. [ MP:MP http://www.stembook.org/node/512 ]

Synonyms: liver diverticulum

This is just here as a test because I lose it