Welcome again. I hope you are doing well. If you want to learn and identify the anatomical features of different organs of the digestive system of animals (animal digestive system), like cattle, sheep, goats, horses, dogs, and others. In that case, you are in the right place.
Here in this article, I will identify the most important anatomical features of different organs of the digestive system of animals (animal digestive system). I hope you have a basic idea about the osteological features of different bones of an animal’s body and a good knowledge of the different important muscles of an animal’s body.
You may memorize these and start from these two articles: Osteological Features of Bones and Muscles of Animal’s Body. Again, if you have a better idea, you may skip them. Okay, let’s start to learn and identify the anatomical features of different organs of the digestive system of animals (animal digestive system).
Organs of the Digestive System of Animal
We will identify the following important parts or organs from the digestive system of animals (animal digestive system) –
Digestive tract or gastrointestinal tract: It includes the following important parts –
- Different parts of the mouth cavity
- Structure of tongue
- Structure of teeth
- Opening of pharynx
- Anatomy of esophagus
- Anatomical Structure and different parts of the stomach of different animals
- Anatomical features of different parts of the Small intestine
- Anatomical features of different parts of the Large intestine
- Accessory organs of the digestive system of animal
Here, we will learn and identify the Structure of the following important organs –
- Different salivary glands like the parotid salivary gland, mandibular salivary gland, and sublingual gland
- Anatomical Structure of liver
- Anatomical Structure of Pancreas
- Anatomical Structure of Spleen
“In this article, I will identify only the most important anatomical features of different organs of an animal’s digestive system (animal digestive system) without description. You should know the description also. For that, you may refer to the other specific article or simply read the books.”
Learning requirements
To identify the most important anatomical features of different organs of the digestive system of animal (animal digestive system) with their proper location, you should have the following basic ideas –
- Osteological features of different bones of animal’s body
- Anatomical features of different important muscles from an animal’s body
I hope you have a better idea about these. Now, you may start to learn and identify the most important anatomical features of different organs of the digestive system of animals (animal digestive system).
Different parts of the mouth cavity of animals
As you know, the mouth cavity is an elongated cavity with two important parts: the vestibule of the mouth and the mouth cavity proper. We will identify the following important anatomical features from the mouth cavity.
Anatomical features from the oral surface of the upper jaw of animals
- Soft palate
- Hard palate with median and transverse raphe
- Different types of teeth (Molar, premolar)
- Horney papillae
- Papilla incisive
- Dental pad
Anatomical features from the lower jaw of animals (Floor of mouth cavity)
We will identify the following important anatomical structures from a lower jar of animals-
- Tongue (dorsal surface, torus linguae, tip of tongue)
- Different types of teeth (molar, premolar, incisor teeth)
- Frenum linguae
- Floor of mouth
- Caruncula sublingualis
Anatomical features of the tongue of animals
The tongue is an animal’s movable muscular organ. It has a root, body, and apex. Various papillae are on the dorsal surface of animals’ tongues. Here, we will identify the following anatomical Structure of the tongue (animal digestive system – organs – tongue – ruminant tongue)
- The root, body, and apex of the tongue
- Dorsum linguae
- Transverse groove
- Lingual fossa
- Torus linguae
- Frenum linguae
- Different types of papillae like – vallate, lenticular, filiform and fungiform papillae
“You should also know the different types of teeth and dental formulas for different animals.”
Pharynx of animals
It is a roughly funnel-shaped space common to the digestive and respiratory systems. You will learn details about the pharynx later. This pharynx communicates with other structures of the body by seven openings. We should identify these seven openings of the pharynx –
- Two for Eustachian tube
- Two for posterior nares
- One for esophagus
- One for the mouth cavity and
- One for larynx
Identification of the anatomy of the esophagus
The esophagus is a muscular tube that extends from the pharynx to the stomach (opens at the dorsal surface of the rumen and reticulum of the stomach – in the case of ruminants, it is called the atrium ventricle.
You need to learn the course and the relationship of the esophagus with other parts (especially the trachea and different muscles). You may learn from this article. Hope you will get an idea about the course and relationship. But here, we will only identify the esophagus. We will identify –
- Cervical parts of the esophagus
- The thoracic part of the esophagus
- Relationship with trachea (at the level of 3rd to 6th cervical vertebrae)
- Atrium ventriculi (opening part of the esophagus at the dorsal part of the rumen and reticulum junction)
You may also know
- Different cavities of animal body with their contents
- Anatomical features of the peritoneum of animal
Anatomical Structure of the stomach of an animal (represent ruminant stomach)
The stomach is an important organ of the digestive system of animals (animal digestive system). In ruminants, the stomach has four compartments: rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum.
You should know the surface and topographic location of different stomach parts. It is located in the abdominal cavity and faces the left (most of the part). Here, we will identify the following important features of the stomach of ruminants –
Identify the anatomical features of the rumen
- Atrium ventriculi
- The dorsal sac of the rumen
- Caudo dorsal blind sac of rumen
- The ventral sac of the rumen
- Caudo ventral blind sac of rumen
- Longitudinal groove
- Insula ruminis
- Transverse groove
- Coronary groove (dorsal and ventral)
- Internal structure – carpet like
It is an elongated muscular structure located at the level of the 8th ribs to the pelvic inlet. The reticulum is a pyriform sac-like Structure and the smallest of these four compartments. It is located at the level of 7th to 8th ribs. We will identify –
- Pyriform-shaped small compartment
- Internal structure – honeycomb-like appearance
- Reticulo- omasal sphincter
Omasum is located on the right side at the level of the 7th to 11th ribs. It is an oval and laterally compressed organ of an animal’s digestive system (animal digestive system). We will identify the following structures-
Oval-shaped laterally compressed Structure of stomach
Internal structures – crescent-shaped fold or laminae
Again, the abomasum is an elongated structure located at the xiphoid region of the sternum to the abdominal floor. It is called the true stomach and has three parts – cardiac, fundic, and pyloric parts. We will identify the following structures –
Elongated secular Structure of the stomach
Internal Structure – present of abomasal fold
Pyloric sphincter
Identification of anatomical Structure of small intestine and large intestine of animal
The small intestine begins at the pylorus and ends at the ileocecal junction. It consists of three parts – duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. We will identify the following parts from the small intestines of animals-
- S shaped curved of duodenum
- Descending parts of duodenum
- Caudal flexure of duodenum
- Ascending part of duodenum
- Jejunum (coil part)
- Ileum (thick part)
The large intestine consists of three parts – the cecum, colon, and recetum. Again, the colon has different loops. We will identify the following parts from the large intestine of an animal –
Cecum (blind sac like Structure)
Ascending colon with three loops – Proximal loop of the colon; Spiral loop of the colon (centripetal colon, central colon, centrifugal colon), and Distal loop of colon
Transverse colon and
Descending colon
Identification of accessory digestive organs of animals
We will also identify the following accessory digestive organs of animals (animal digestive system) –
Salivary glands – three major salivary glands
- Parotid salivary gland
- Mandibular salivary glands and
- Sublingual salivary gland
The Parotid is a triangular, long, reddish brown gland located on the masseter muscle along the caudal border of the cervical part of the ramus of the mandible. The duct of the parotid salivary gland (Stenson’s duct) opens at the base of papillae salivates opposite to the second molar tooth of the upper jaw.
The mandibular is an elongated pale yellow gland located at the medial side of the angle of the mandible. The duct of the mandibular gland (Wharton’s duct) opens at the caruncle sublingual.
Sublingual salivary has two separate parts – superior and inferior parts of the gland.
Anatomical features of the liver of the animal
The liver is the largest solid gland of an animal’s body (animal digestive system accessory gland). It is located on the right side of the abdominal cavity at the 7th to 8th ribs level. We will identify the following anatomical structures from the liver –
- Parietal surface
- Visceral surface
- Different lobes – right, left, caudate lobes
- Omasal impression
- Reticular impression
- Abomasal impression
- Cystic impression
- Renal impression
- Gall bladder
- Cystic duct
- Bile duct
- Hepatic artery and portal vein
- Different ligaments like – right lateral. Falciform, round and lesser omentum
Conclusion
I hope you got an idea of the most important anatomical features of different organs of the digestive system of animals (animal digestive system) and will be able to identify these organs from different animals based on their most important anatomical features.
If you think you need more than this information, you must learn and identify the most important anatomical features of different organs of the digestive system of animals (animal digestive system). In that case, I recommend you learn from class lectures or books.
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“If possible, I will update or enrich information, pictures, and videos on this topic in the future.”
If there is any mistake in the above information or if you have any suggestions for me, please let me know in the comment box. Thank you so much.
