Digestive-Matt+Burke


 * 1)  Compare and contrast the various organs and their order through the body. What role does each of them play (function, physical or chemical action?) In the pig, they have basically the same parts as us humans do. The mouth of the pig is used to chew the food up to start the digestion process. The saliva glands help to break the food down into pieces. After the food is partially broken up, it travels to the esophagus. The esophagus is the food tube. The food is swallowed and then the esophagus takes it to the stomach. The stomach uses a type of acid to break the food down even more before entering the small intestines. The stomach breaks up the food and pulls out protein and other substances. The small intestines is the most crucial part of the digestive system. It is the main source of digesting fats and carbohydrates. After the small intestines, the food enters the large intestines. They are used for water absorption. The rectum stores the food waste and finally the waste exits through the anus. The crayfish doesn't have nearly as many parts as the pigs. The Crayfish has a mouth which is used to break food down, it has a stomach which digests the food using acid, and it has an anus for getting rid of the waste. The starfish is much more similar to the crayfish than the pig, but the parts look very different. It has a mouth for chewing up food, it has a stomach for breaking the food down using acids, and it has an anus for getting rid of wastes. There are only a few parts that each organism has. These are the anus, mouth, and the stomach. Overall, the main difference is that the pig has more parts than the other two. Also, the pig's organs are larger than the other two.
 * 2)  Which organisms have similar organs in the digestive system? How does that compare to the types of food that they eat? The pig has many more organs than the starfish and the crayfish, but there are three organs that they all have. These are the mouth, the stomach, and the anus. This is different in each because the food they each is different. Each have different size teeth, different size stomach, and different size anuses. Pigs have larger organs than all of them. Pigs eat larger food like grass. The stomach has to digest larger foods than the others so it is a little large. The pig gets rid of bigger feces than the other two. The star fish has more teeth than the crayfish but they are about the same size. The other organs are very similar in size. Pigs eat anything from grass, to flowers, to roots. Crayfish eat mostly worms and slugs. Starfish eat mostly clams.
 * 3)  How is the organ adapted to provide as many reactions as possible in the shortest amount of space? The organs of animals are actually folded up instead of being stretched out. This help more organ fit in the little area that it has. Look at the small intestines for example. If you would stretch them out, they would be extremely long. So, how do they fit inside a little pig's belly. Well, this is simple. It is folded up. This helps more food fit in at a time. It also helps to break down more food at a time and collect more protein and other things we need. If it was stretched out, you would only have a little amount of space to work with. It is folded up so that there is more of the organ to work with and to process things than if it was stretched out.
 * 4)  How are the same design features found in the parts of the cell as well as in other organisms and the environment? The folding up is the same in the pig as it is in us humans and almost every other animal. Also, there are 3 parts of a cell that are like this. The inside of the mitochondria is folded so that more energy can pass. The golgi body so that it can transfer more material. Last, the E.R. is folded up also.
 * 5) This is my own question. How does an organism digest its food if it doesn't have all the same parts as another organism. The answer is that different organisms eat different foods. Some organisms may have less organs, but the organs that they do have do more work than those of others. Take the crayfish for example. It has 3 main parts, the mouth, the stomach, and the anus. The stomach breaks food down way more than that of us humans. The lesser the organs, the more work they have to do. Snakes in nature curl up to fit into small homes. This is related to that.