Comparing the digestive systems of Animals
Sophie Gaft (11) Biology
Question 1: A
Choose one animal from the list of carnivorous animals and one from the list of herbivorous animals. Compare the structural differences between the two digestive systems.
Comparison of a rabbit and cat’s digestive system.
Rabbit (Lepus curpaeums):
Unlike a cat, a rabbit eats a wide variety of plant material. They can process and extract nutrients from many plants that are otherwise indigestible from other herbivores and omnivores.
A rabbit’s digestive process, as with that of a cat, begins at the mouth. The front teeth of the rabbit—incisors—slice off pieces of plant matter. The food is passed to the back teeth—molars—where mechanical digestion is incorporated and the matter is chewed into smaller particles, and then digested.
The rabbit has a large stomach for its body size enabling the fast eating of large amounts of plant material.
In addition to the above mentioned, the rabbit has a large caecum, located where the small intestine and large intestine fuse. The gastrointestinal tract of a rabbit directs food into the caecum if needed for further breakdown. Any already digested materials do not go to the caecum, and instead move straight to the large intestine as waste.
The fiber that makes up a large part of the rabbits diet is broken down in the caecum by microorganisms. Here, the matter becomes a digestible nutrient. This matter must then be moved through the digestive system one more time. The large intestine of a rabbit is very long and thin.
Cecotropes, small round moist pellets, are produced by the rabbit’s caecum. The rabbit eats these as soon as they emerge. This is also an evident action in a multitude of other mammals—feces are ea...
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...ON IN A CARNIVOROUS DIET:
Cat (Felis catus):
A cat has a simple stomach, small caecum and a short gut. In a carnivorous animal, the stomach secretes digestive enzymes which harbor a very strong hydrochloric acid. In contrast to herbivores, a lot of the digestion of food occurs in the stomach of carnivores, rather than in caecum’s, which are sometimes not even found in carnivores.
Food is then moved to the small intestine, which is the primary site of digestion by enzymes. Food continues to travel along the small intestine by peristalsis. To aid in the digestion of lipids—or fats—bile is secreted by the liver. It emulsifies—blends together— lipids and increases enzyme efficiency, and at the same time, it also increases surface area. The remnants are excreted via the rectum and anal sphincters after passing through the long intestine, which mainly reabsorbs water.
With the observation of the digestive organs of the mink, an individual can see that the entire liver is the darkest looking color of the organs in the gastrointestinal tract and the second largest to the intestines. It has five lobes that branch out towards the middle, right, and left which make up the are the median lobe, right lateral lobe, quadrate lobe, left median lobe, and the left lateral lobe. The stomach is what would come after by looking at the mink from top to bottom. It is smaller in size and compressed, due to the fact that there is no food inside, therefore it looks about the size of half the liver. It looks like the letter J but it is placed laterally on the body. Also, it has a soft light pink color.
The digestive system of the horse consists of a simple stomach, small intestines, cecum, large and small colons, rectum and anus. The horse’s stomach is comparatively small for its size. The stomach of an average horse has a holding capacity of about two gallons. This may be the reason horses eat small but frequent meals. From the stomach food moves to the small intestine, which is the main site of digestion. The small intestine empties into the cecum. The cecum; along with the large colon; make up the large intestine. Digestion in the large intestine occurs by action of bacteria and protozoa. (arg.gov.sk.ca)
4)Stomach: The stomach squeezes and mixes food with enzymes for hours before it releases the mixture into the small intestine.
In order for this breakdown to happen, the ‘tube’ through which the food travels requires assistance from a number of other digestive organs starting with the salivary glands, and later receiving
It measures about 1.5m in length, and 6.5cm in diameter, wrap around the small intestine, in a shape of an arch. It is made up of caecum, colon, rectum, appendix, anal canal and anus. About 90% of water is re-absorbed here, which is one of its major function. There are also bacteria in the large intestine that converts protein to amino acid. These bacteria produce gas, acid and vitamin B &K by breaking down amino acid. These vitamins are absorbed here. The content of the large intestine changes to a semi solid state called faeces due to water re-absorption. (Tortora G. and Derrickson B.
Pancreas- The pancreas creates a juice that breaks down carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. "The pancreas delivers digestive juice to the small intestine through small tubes called ducts" (NIH (5).) The pancreas is not considered part of the GI tract, but it is a necessary organ needed for the digestion and absorption of nutrients.
...ve eaten, to break down the food into a liquid mixture and to slowly empty that liquid mixture into the small intestine. Once the bolus has entered your stomach it begins to be broken down with the help of the strong muscles and gastric juices which are located in the walls of your stomach. The gastric juices are made up of hydrochloric acid, water, and mucus- and the main enzyme inside of your stomach is what is known as pepsin, which needs to be surrounded in an acidic setting in order to do its job, that is to break down protein. Once the bolus has been inside of your stomach for long enough it begins to form into a liquid called chyme, and what keeps the chyme from flowing back into our esophagus are ring shaped muscles known as sphincters located at the beginnings and ends of the stomach and they have the task of controlling the flow of solids and liquids.
Imagine you are eating a sandwich containing wheat bread, ham, lettuce, and Swiss cheese. Do you ever wonder where the nutrients go from all of the previous listed ingredients? Well, when a bite of this sandwich is taken, the mouth produces a saliva enzyme called amylase. This enzyme immediately goes to work by breaking down the carbohydrates that are in the bread. Once, the bite is completely chewed, the contents then are swallowed and go down the esophagus and begin to head towards the upper esophageal sphincter and the is involuntarily pushed towards the stomach. The next passage for the sandwich is to go through the lower esophageal sphincter; which transports the sandwich into the stomach.
The main similarity between minks and humans in the digestive system is that they both serv...
As the digestive system breaks down your food, after it's broken down it turns into energy. Your circulatory system takes some the produced energy and transports it around the body, delivering it and other blood, nutrients, oxygen, and more compounds to every cell in your body. The digestive depends on the circulatory as much as it does vice versa because they need the blood, nutrients, and energy (broken down food) that was produced from both systems. Many digestive organs need to use about 30% of cardiac output. Both the digestive and circulatory systems get rid of unwanted or unneeded materials (waste) and feces (poop). The vial substances are absorbed by the small intestine, where it is put into the bloodstream, so it can be circulated around the body. The most important thing is that with no nutrients and circulation, there's no life.
In Labs 22 through 26, my lab partner and I were assigned a fetal pig to perform a dissection on in order to understand anatomy, the study of an organism’s structure1, and physiology, the study of the functions and activities of a living organism2. Throughout these labs, we studied the structure of the fetal pig and performed experiments to understand four system processes: digestion, cardiovascular, respiratory, and excretory. Dissecting an organism, physically moving and seeing the different portions of the organism, especially of a fetal pig, is very important. This helps in the understanding of the skeletal structure and what series of physical and chemical processes the mammalian species body performs in order to survive.
Absorption is the way of digesting the food molecules into the small intestine. This process of absorption pass throughout the wall of the small intestine into the bloodstream. The bloodstream carried out all important nutrients to the
It holds a juice that contains digestive enzymes like trypsin,it helps digest protein foods, the juice is called, pancreatic juice. It also holds amylase and maltase, they mash down carbohydrates. And finally it also holds lipase, it works with bile from the liver to digest fat. Bile is made in the liver but held in the gallbladder, a little pitted organ found just below the liver. Bile does not have enzymes instead, it holds mostly acids, salts, cholesterol, and other materials that work with lipase to break down fats.
...he Buttermilk White bread. The food makes its way to the transverse colon and extra nutrients are released form the cellulose of the undigested particles. It continues on to the descending colon. There I start to manufacture vitamin K and other B-complex vitamins. Those are then absorbed into my large intestine.
The digestive system is a very important system in the human body. It is a group of organs that work together to turn food into energy and nutrients in the entire body. The food that was chewed in a humans’ mouth now passes through a long tube that is inside of the body that is known as the alimentary canal. The alimentary canal is made of the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestines, and large intestines. Those few things are not the only important accessories of the digestive system there is also the teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.