(a) Humans and herbivores, such as the (b) rabbit, have a monogastric digestive system. However, in the rabbit the small intestine and cecum are enlarged to allow more time to digest plant material. The enlarged organ provides more surface area for absorption of nutrients. Rabbits digest their food twice: the first time food passes through the digestive system, it collects in the cecum, and then it passes as soft feces called cecotrophes. The rabbit re-ingests these cecotrophes to further digest them.
Avian
Birds face special challenges when it comes to obtaining nutrition from food. They do not have teeth and so their digestive system, shown in
[link] , must be able to process un-masticated food. Birds have evolved a variety of beak types that reflect the vast variety in their diet, ranging from seeds and insects to fruits and nuts. Because most birds fly, their metabolic rates are high in order to efficiently process food and keep their body weight low. The stomach of birds has two chambers: the
proventriculus , where gastric juices are produced to digest the food before it enters the stomach, and the
gizzard , where the food is stored, soaked, and mechanically ground. The undigested material forms food pellets that are sometimes regurgitated. Most of the chemical digestion and absorption happens in the intestine and the waste is excreted through the cloaca.
The avian esophagus has a pouch, called a crop, which stores food. Food passes from the crop to the first of two stomachs, called the proventriculus, which contains digestive juices that break down food. From the proventriculus, the food enters the second stomach, called the gizzard, which grinds food. Some birds swallow stones or grit, which are stored in the gizzard, to aid the grinding process. Birds do not have separate openings to excrete urine and feces. Instead, uric acid from the kidneys is secreted into the large intestine and combined with waste from the digestive process. This waste is excreted through an opening called the cloaca.
Evolution connection
Avian adaptations
Birds have a highly efficient, simplified digestive system. Recent fossil evidence has shown that the evolutionary divergence of birds from other land animals was characterized by streamlining and simplifying the digestive system. Unlike many other animals, birds do not have teeth to chew their food. In place of lips, they have sharp pointy beaks. The horny beak, lack of jaws, and the smaller tongue of the birds can be traced back to their dinosaur ancestors. The emergence of these changes seems to coincide with the inclusion of seeds in the bird diet. Seed-eating birds have beaks that are shaped for grabbing seeds and the two-compartment stomach allows for delegation of tasks. Since birds need to remain light in order to fly, their metabolic rates are very high, which means they digest their food very quickly and need to eat often. Contrast this with the ruminants, where the digestion of plant matter takes a very long time.
Ruminants
Ruminants are mainly herbivores like cows, sheep, and goats, whose entire diet consists of eating large amounts of
roughage or fiber. They have evolved digestive systems that help them digest vast amounts of cellulose. An interesting feature of the ruminants’ mouth is that they do not have upper incisor teeth. They use their lower teeth, tongue and lips to tear and chew their food. From the mouth, the food travels to the esophagus and on to the stomach.
Questions & Answers
Discuss the differences between taste and flavor, including how other sensory inputs contribute to our perception of flavor.
The lymphatic system plays several crucial roles in the human body, functioning as a key component of the immune system and contributing to the maintenance of fluid balance. Its main functions include:
1. Immune Response: The lymphatic system produces and transports lymphocytes, which are a type of
asegid
to transport fluids fats proteins and lymphocytes to the blood stream as lymph
Anatomy is the study of the structure of the body, while physiology is the study of the function of the body. Anatomy looks at the body's organs and systems, while physiology looks at how those organs and systems work together to keep the body functioning.
Enzymes are proteins that help speed up chemical reactions in our bodies. Enzymes are essential for digestion, liver function and much more. Too much or too little of a certain enzyme can cause health problems
Kamara
yes
Prince
how does the stomach protect itself from the damaging effects of HCl
the normal temperature is 37°c or 98.6 °Fahrenheit is important for maintaining the homeostasis in the body
the body regular this temperature through the process called thermoregulation which involves brain skin muscle and other organ working together to maintain stable internal temperature
