write a short note on ruminant stomach of herbivores
Answers
Explanation:
Ruminants are mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microbial actions. The process, which takes place in the front part of the digestive system and therefore is called foregut fermentation, typically requires the fermented ingesta (known as cud) to be regurgitated and chewed again. The process of rechewing the cud to further break down plant matter and stimulate digestion is called rumination.The word "ruminant" comes from the Latin ruminare, which means "to chew over again".
The roughly 200 species of living ruminants include both domestic and wild species. Ruminating mammals include cattle, all domesticated and wild bovines, goats, sheep, giraffes, deer, gazelles, and antelopes.It has also been suggested that notoungulates also relied on rumination, as opposed to other atlantogenates that rely on the more typical hindgut fermentation, though this is not entirely certain.
Roughly 50% of the organic carbon on earth is tied up in cellulose. This represents an enormous source of energy, yet vertebrate cells do not produce the cellulases necessary to break down this abundant material.
Fortunately, many microbes produce cellulases which allow them to utilize dietary cellulose and other plant wall materials. Cellulolytic microbes inhabit the digestive tract of all animals, allowing the animal to siphon off and assimilate the end products of fermentation, particularly short chain or volatile fatty acids.
The relative value of fermentation to an animal's nutrition pretty much depends on the size of its fermentation vat. Fermentation occurs in the colon of dogs and humans, but their large bowel is rather small and the benefit they gain from fermentation is trivial. In contrast, herbivores make a living on cellulose by possessing massive fermentation vats as part of their digestive tract.