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Frog Digestive System Short Notes

In this article we will discuss about the frog digestive system

Frog Digestive System

The function of the frog digestive system is digestion and absorption
Frog digestive system consists of alimentary canal along with digestive glands

Alimentary canal

Alimentary canal is long, complete and coiled tube
Alimentary canal consist of mouth, buccal cavity, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, intestine, rectum, cloaca

Mouth

Frog digestive system starts with the mouth
Two bony jaws bound the mouth, and the jaws are covered by immovable lips
Mouth helps in consumption of food. This process is known as ingestion.

Buccal cavity of frog

Mouth opens into buccal cavity
Buccal cavity has glandular epithelial lining that secrete mucus, helps in lubricating the food.
Frog lacks salivary glands

Teeth

Teeth occur in a row of maxillae bones in the upper jaw
Function of teeth is to simply hold the prey and prevent it from slipping out
The nature of teeth is homodont (similar), acrodont (not set in a socket), polyphyodont (replaced several times)
The lower jaw lacks teeth
Vomerine teeth are two rough bumps on the roof of the frog’s mouth. These function in holding and capturing prey.

Tongue

Tongue is large, muscular and sticky
Anterior end of tongue is attached to the inner border of lower jaw
Posterior end is free and bifid

Pharynx

The buccal cavity reaches short pharynx
The pharynx tapers behind to lead to oesophagus through the gullet
Gullet is the wide opening that leads to oesophagus

Oesophagus

Oesophagus is short, wide and muscular tube
Some alkaline digestive juice is secreted by the glandular lining of oesophagus
The oesophagus opens into the stomach

Stomach

Large and thick muscular sac like structure
Anterior end of stomach is called cardiac end while the posterior end is called pyloric end
The walls of stomach are muscular and glandular
Stomach secrete HCL & proteolytic enzyme
HCL makes the acidic PH of food & it is bacteriolytic
In stomach, digestion of protein of food is started

Small intestine

Small intestine is a long, coiled and narrow tube
It comprises of two parts: anterior duodenum and posterior ileum
The ducts from liver and pancreas open into the duodenum
Bile juice emulsifies fat and pancreatic juices digest carbohydrates and proteins
Digested food is absorbed by ileum

Rectum

Large intestine is short and wide tube
Its inner lining forms numerous folds
In rectum undigested food material is stored which is ready to expel from cloaca

Cloaca

The anus and the urinogenital apertures open into cloaca
Cloaca opens to outside by the vent or cloacal aperture, lying at the hind end of body.
Cloaca remove undigested food material.

Digestive glands of frog

Liver

The largest gland of the body
Bile is a greenish alkaline fluid secreted by liver
Bile is stored sac called as gall bladder
It changes the PH of food from acidic to alkaline
Hepatic ducts joins the pancreatic duct to form a hepatopancreatic duct
Ultimately opens into duodenum

Pancreas

Pancreas is long and irregularly lobed gland
It secrete pancreatic juice
Pancreatic juice poured into duodenum through hepatopancreatic duct
Pancreatic juice help digestion of ingested food

How Digestive System Works In Frog?

Frog feeds on insects, worms, crustaceans, molluscs, small fish and even small frogs and tadpoles
The prey is caught by rapid flicking of tongue and is swallowed as a whole
Salivary glands are absent in case of frogs, the food is lubricated by the mucus secreted from the lining of buccal cavity and oesophagus
The food is now passed to stomach
Food remains in the stomach for up to 2-3hrs
Gastric juice is secreted by the gastric glands of stomach wall
Now acidic chyme enters the duodenum
Three important substances mix with the food in intestine
They are derived from three different sources: bile, pancreatic juice and intestinal juice
Digestion is accomplished in the small intestine
The faecal matter passes into cloaca

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