Oral Cavity: Jaws And Teeth

431 Words1 Page

Oral Cavity – Jaws and Teeth
Carnivores have highly developed jaw lines called the temporalis muscle with wider mouths related to their head size. Their teeth are like canine teeth and they tend to chew up and down, not side to side. A few carnivores have enough energy to go without hunting for several days.
Herbivores have flat teeth, and they don’t exactly chew either. Cows for example rip grass, they chew it with their front teeth but with the help of the jaws moving side to side, it allows them to turn the plant into pulp.
Digestive Tracts
Carnivores obtain nutrients from meat so they have shorter digestive tracts. Since their diet consists of a small amount of plant material, they have small caecums (a pouch that joins up the small intestines …show more content…

They also have a bigger caecum to help break down plant material.
Stomach
Carnivore’s stomachs discharges enzymes 10 times the amount of hydrochloric acid than a herbivore or a human. The pH of a carnivore stomach is less than or equal to one. The secretion of hydrochloric acid breaks down food into liquid chyme.
Herbivore’s but in specific – cows – have four stomachs. They contain billions of bacteria and protozoa which help break down the cellulose (a carbohydrate that is a main building block in plant cell walls) in the cell walls of the plant fibers. The food then comes back up to the mouth so the teeth can grind it up again. The bacteria in the first three stomachs: the rumen, reticulum, and omasum mainly break down the plant fibers in preparation for digestion. Actual digestion takes place in the fourth and final stomach, the abomasum. Pepsin, lipase, and hydrochloric acid break down the food into integral nutrients.

Small Intestines
Carnivore: Once the food is broken down, the nutrients in the small intestine get absorbed into the blood stream. Carnivores do not have any enzymes for digesting cellulose (a carbohydrate that is a main building block in plant cell walls). The digestion and absorption of fat and protein is extremely

More about Oral Cavity: Jaws And Teeth

Open Document