The posterior cardinal veins or postcardinal veins join with the corresponding right and left cardinal veins to form the left common cardinal veins, which empty in the sinus venosus.

In the development of a human embryo, most of the posterior cardinal veins regress, and what remains of them forms the renal segment of the inferior vena cava and the common iliac veins.

Later in the development stages, the posterior cardinal veins are replaced by the subcardinal and supracardinal veins.

[1] This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 520 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

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