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The basic components of the human and rabbit digestive system are the same: each begins at the mouth. Food is swallowed through the esophagus and into the kidney-shaped stomach. The liver is located on top of the stomach, and the pancreas is underneath. Food passes from the stomach to the long, winding small intestine. From there it enters the wide large intestine before passing out the anus. At the junction of the small and large intestine is a pouch called the cecum. The small and large intestines are much longer in rabbits than in humans, and the cecum is much longer as well.
(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.

Illustration shows an avian digestive system. Food is swallowed through the esophagus into the crop, which is shaped like an upside-down heart. From the bottom of the crop food enters a tubular proventriculus, which empties into a spherical gizzard. From the gizzard, food enters the small intestine, then the large intestine. Waste exits the body through the cloaca. The liver and pancreas are located between the crop and gizzard. Rather than a single cecum, birds have two caeca at the junction of the small and large intestine.
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

differentiate between demand and supply giving examples
Lambiv Reply
differentiated between demand and supply using examples
Lambiv
what is labour ?
Lambiv
how will I do?
Venny Reply
how is the graph works?I don't fully understand
Rezat Reply
information
Eliyee
devaluation
Eliyee
t
WARKISA
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Lambiv
multiple choice question
Aster Reply
appreciation
Eliyee
explain perfect market
Lindiwe Reply
In economics, a perfect market refers to a theoretical construct where all participants have perfect information, goods are homogenous, there are no barriers to entry or exit, and prices are determined solely by supply and demand. It's an idealized model used for analysis,
Ezea
What is ceteris paribus?
Shukri Reply
other things being equal
AI-Robot
When MP₁ becomes negative, TP start to decline. Extuples Suppose that the short-run production function of certain cut-flower firm is given by: Q=4KL-0.6K2 - 0.112 • Where is quantity of cut flower produced, I is labour input and K is fixed capital input (K-5). Determine the average product of lab
Kelo
Extuples Suppose that the short-run production function of certain cut-flower firm is given by: Q=4KL-0.6K2 - 0.112 • Where is quantity of cut flower produced, I is labour input and K is fixed capital input (K-5). Determine the average product of labour (APL) and marginal product of labour (MPL)
Kelo
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Shukri
Can I ask you other question?
Shukri
what is monopoly mean?
Habtamu Reply
What is different between quantity demand and demand?
Shukri Reply
Quantity demanded refers to the specific amount of a good or service that consumers are willing and able to purchase at a give price and within a specific time period. Demand, on the other hand, is a broader concept that encompasses the entire relationship between price and quantity demanded
Ezea
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Shukri
how do you save a country economic situation when it's falling apart
Lilia Reply
what is the difference between economic growth and development
Fiker Reply
Economic growth as an increase in the production and consumption of goods and services within an economy.but Economic development as a broader concept that encompasses not only economic growth but also social & human well being.
Shukri
production function means
Jabir
What do you think is more important to focus on when considering inequality ?
Abdisa Reply
any question about economics?
Awais Reply
sir...I just want to ask one question... Define the term contract curve? if you are free please help me to find this answer 🙏
Asui
it is a curve that we get after connecting the pareto optimal combinations of two consumers after their mutually beneficial trade offs
Awais
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Asui
In economics, the contract curve refers to the set of points in an Edgeworth box diagram where both parties involved in a trade cannot be made better off without making one of them worse off. It represents the Pareto efficient allocations of goods between two individuals or entities, where neither p
Cornelius
In economics, the contract curve refers to the set of points in an Edgeworth box diagram where both parties involved in a trade cannot be made better off without making one of them worse off. It represents the Pareto efficient allocations of goods between two individuals or entities,
Cornelius
Suppose a consumer consuming two commodities X and Y has The following utility function u=X0.4 Y0.6. If the price of the X and Y are 2 and 3 respectively and income Constraint is birr 50. A,Calculate quantities of x and y which maximize utility. B,Calculate value of Lagrange multiplier. C,Calculate quantities of X and Y consumed with a given price. D,alculate optimum level of output .
Feyisa Reply
Answer
Feyisa
c
Jabir
the market for lemon has 10 potential consumers, each having an individual demand curve p=101-10Qi, where p is price in dollar's per cup and Qi is the number of cups demanded per week by the i th consumer.Find the market demand curve using algebra. Draw an individual demand curve and the market dema
Gsbwnw Reply
suppose the production function is given by ( L, K)=L¼K¾.assuming capital is fixed find APL and MPL. consider the following short run production function:Q=6L²-0.4L³ a) find the value of L that maximizes output b)find the value of L that maximizes marginal product
Abdureman
types of unemployment
Yomi Reply
What is the difference between perfect competition and monopolistic competition?
Mohammed
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Source:  OpenStax, Biology. OpenStax CNX. Feb 29, 2016 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11448/1.10
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