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Essay of the digestive system in animals
Comparative digestive systems of animals
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As time progresses, animals have become bigger and display more of a complex body. In some cases, this is not always true. The Poriferas and Cnidarians do not have a difficult structure like the Platyhelminthes. The body structures can determine a lot about how these animals survive in their environment, and it is important that their structure can manage their distribution of gases, and obtain food and waste. These facts and information will show proof of the many characteristics and bodily functions that these three animals display.
I found it interesting that the most recognized organisms in the Porifera Phylum are called sponges. In fact, Porifera is the oldest phylum in the kingdom of Animalia, and have been around for the last six hundred
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In fact, these exceptional animals have true tissues, develop from embryonic gastrula, and it acquires multicellular reproductive structures, which is what makes them different from sponges. Cnidarians have only three classes: Hydrozoa, Schyphozoa, and Anthozoa. It is easy to remember Cnidarians are recognizable as jellies and anemones, and most common are jellyfish. The embryonic endoderm and ectoderm are what make up the two distinct body layers of Cnidarians. Since Cnidarians are organisms with two tissue layers making Cnidarians diploblastic. Their body structure has a mouth, which traps prey into the gastrovascular cavity. It uses its tentacles to trap the prey. Water is pumped through the gastrovascular cavity as well. Most of the Cnidarians are radically symmetrical. Unlike stinging the human skin, the tentacles can immobilize their prey. There are two basic shapes that are identified with the cnidarians animal, which are the polypoid or medusoid. Polypoids are the shape of corals and anemones. Medusoids are different than the polypoids, and are jellyfish. Cnidarians have an advantage over other animals. The tentacles on their body structure make it easier to grab their prey. Their tentacles can even sting humans, but it is not fatal at all, just can be …show more content…
The most recognizable organisms of Platyhelminthes are flatworms. This animal is one of a kind because it has a head. It is different from the Cnidarians because it is has three body layers or in other words it is triploblastic. It has an endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm. This animal displays four classes: Turbellaria, Monogenea, Trematoda, and Cestoda. Back to the main idea of the Platyhelminthes, the head directs the animal around its environment, and controls the sensory structures. It has a top dorsal and bottom ventral on their body structure. Some characteristics that are identified with the Platyhelminthes are: bilateral symmetry, gas exchange by diffusion, organs for digestion, reproduction, excretion, and cephalization. The digestive tracts of free-living flatworms are branched. This animal uses diffusion to exchange oxygen into carbon dioxide across the surface of their body. Some interesting facts about flatworms are: they lack an anus, and they are free-swimming animals. Another unique trait that they have on top of their head are projections on both sides. These are called auricles, which are used to find food chemicals in the water. This is considered an advantage for them to survive. Their mesoderm layer develops into the organs, and the major cavity in the mesoderm is named the coelomic cavity for it separates the walls of body from movements of the
Fox, R. 2001. Invertebrate Anatomy OnLine: Artemia Franciscana. Lander University. http://webs.lander.edu/rsfox/invertebrates/artemia.html, retrieved February 13, 2011.
Students and researchers can learn a lot from observing the mink; unexpectedly I was able to find many similarities between the mink and a human. Humans and Minks are very close in class, which explains their similarities in anatomy. Indeed although these two organisms have a lot in common there are major differences amongst these similarities. The similarities are due to the fact that both humans and the mink are mammals. The differences are due to the differences in environment, habits, size etc... One example is the fact that minks and humans both have lugs of similar shape but different lobes. Each of these similarities and/or differences benefit both the human and the mink, in their own unique way, with each structure having its own function. Overall the mink is a very complex animal and so is an individual.
Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurs are closely related in their characteristics. Ceratopsians processed a saddle-shaped boney frill that extended from the skull to the neck and typically had horns over the nose and eyes. The most popular was the triceratops, which could reach over 26 feet and weigh in excess of twelve metric tons. Their frills served as two major functions. It protected the vulnerable neck from being harmed. The second major function that the frill provided was due to the fact that the frill contained a network of blood vessels on its underside, which were used as a means to get rid of excess heat. The Pachycephalosaurs were considered to be bipedal. They were also found to have thick skulls, flattened bodies, and tail that were covered in an array of body rods. Pachycephalosaurs were thought to have been more than fifteen feet long and processed a skull that was surrounded by a rounded dome of solid bone. It was thought that they used their heads in combat or mating contests, but that was disproved fairly recently, which I will discuss later in the paper. Both Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurs were “bird-hipped” and both of these suborders contained a backwards pubic bone. Both were Marginocephilia, or “fringed heads”, which is one of three clads under the Orinthiscia order. They were also herbivore dinosaurs that inherited their fringe at the back of the skull from earlier ancestors.(2) Their classi...
Oxygen breathing lungs are a universal trait of class reptilia. As such, it would have been necessary for the Plesiosauroid - a marine reptile, to return to the ocean surface to inhale air. Oxygen expenditure in reptiles is proportional to strenuosity of locomotion (Frappell, Schultz & Christian, 2002). Therefore the Plesiosauroid must have held physiological traits that enabled the species to avoid oxygen deficit while hunting deep-sea dwelling prey. This essay will outline the hypothesised respiratory, circulatory, pulmonary and sensory attributes of the Plesiosauroid as they relate to diving. These hypotheses will be supported by investigating the physiological adaptations of the Plesiosaur’s biological analogues, and the prospect of similar adaptations in the former will be speculated upon.
During digestion, the body breaks down food into smaller molecules that could then be used by the body’s cells and tissues in order to perform functions. This starts off in the mouth with the physical movements of chewing and the chemical breakdown by saliva. Enzymes in the stomach break food down further after traveling from the mouth through the esophagus. The food from here then moves into the small intestine, where pancreatic juices and enzymes dissolve proteins, carbohydrates, and fibers, and bile from the liver breaks down fats into these small molecules. Any portion of the fibers or food that were unable to be broken down are passed from the small intestine to the large intestine, which is where the digestive tract transitions into the excretory tract, then the colon and out of the rectum. Any liquids that have been stripped of their nutrients by the body proceed from the stomach to the kidneys. In the kidneys, sodium ions (Na+), uric acid, and urea are exchanged with water, which moves urinary bladder and is excreted through the
The outer layer of a reef consists of living animals, or polyps, of coral. Single-celled algae called zooxanthellae live within the coral polyps, and a skeleton containing filamentous green algae surrounds them. The photosynthetic zooxanthellae and green algae transfer food energy directly to the coral polyps, while acquiring scarce nutrients from the coral. The numerous micro habitats of coral reefs and the high biological productivity support a great diversity of other life.
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.
Works Cited "Animal Planet" Animal Planet. N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 09 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.
The “water bear” is a common name for a group of a little over 100 genera of protozoans grouped under the Phylum Tardigrada and is a relative of the Phylum Arthropoda. The phylum Tardigrada contains over 1000 species, and is grouped into three classes. There are two main classes the Heterotarigrada ad the Eutardigrada. The last is the Mesotardigrada and contains only one species, that was discovered in a sulfur spring in Japan 1937, and has not been seen since. “Water bears” are, as with most species, separated into groups by characteristics and more recently molecular genetic methods. The Heterotarigrada are known mainly for their hair like tufts on appendages and hard-undivided flattened scales. The Eutardigrada are known as “naked tardigrades” because they lack the hard scales or have several separate plates. Tardigrades are then divide further into orders by comparing groups for cuticle appearance, feeding tube, claws, and other defining features (Michalczyk, 2014).
The first specimens of platypuses brought back to England were thought to be hoaxes similar to mermaids (Moyal, 2001). Found only in and around Australia, there are only three living species of monotremes: the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and two species of echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus, and Zaglossus bruijni). The word “monotreme” is Greek for “one-hole,” referring to the cloaca that is the exit for the urinary, reproductive, and excretory systems (Dawson, 1983). The creatures are oviparous—the females lay eggs that develop outside of her body. This paper will explain the background of the animals, the anatomy of the tract and egg, breeding behavior, and genetics behind this unique reproductive system.
A group of scientists from North Carolina and Oregon used medical technology to search an iron-stained concretion inside the specimen’s chest. With the assistance of imaging equipment and software, they were able to reconstruct 3-dimensional structures through the interior of the concretion. The images reveal a heart that was more like that of a bird or a mammal than those of reptiles, significantly adding to evidence suggesting that at least some dinosaurs had high metabolic rates. In addition, the heart appears to have been four chambered with a single aorta, which is most commonly found in mammals or birds.
The body of a coral animal consists of a polyp, which is the living portion of the coral. A polyp is a hollow, cylindrical structure attached at one end to a surface, the other end is a mouth surrounded by tentacles, which gather food and can sting prey to paralyze it. Polyps live in colonies, which grow from 1 to 7 inches, depending on the species. Coral polyps are classified as animals. Microscopic algae live within the animal tissues in a symbiotic relationship. The algae turn sunlight into carbon and sugars, which are then available to the polyp. In turn the polyp filters particles out of the water and excretes waste (nitrogen and phosphorus) that becomes available to the symbiotic algae. It's this very tight nutrient recycling within the coral itself that allows these corals to live in very low nutrient waters.
I bet you didn’t know that coral reefs and sea anemones are related!? They share the same structure, the polyp. A polyp are “tiny, soft-bodied organisms related to sea anemones and jellyfish.” The structure has a mouth surrounded with tiny little tentacles. Shallow water corals that live in water often have another or different food source. The food that they eat is called zooxanthellance. Both of their skeleton is made made out of a CaCO3. They have a body averaging
The excretory system is a passive biological system that removes excess, unnecessary materials from the body fluids of an organism, so as to help maintain internal chemical homeostasis and prevent damage to the body. The dual function of excretory systems is the elimination of the waste products of metabolism and to drain the body of used up and broken down components in a liquid and gaseous state. In humans and other amniotes most of these substances leave the body as urine and to some degree exhalation, mammals also expel them through sweating.