Digestive System of a Thoroughbred Horse- Equus ferus caballus vs. a Common Frog- Anura
Thoroughbred Horse:
Genus- Equus
Species- Caballus
Common name- Thoroughbred Horse
Common Frog:
Genus- Rana
Species- Rana temporaria
Common name- Common Frog
Ashley Chen
PID: 5770968
Section: U25
TA: Alex Ladron de Guevara
I. Introduction
When discussing the thoroughbred horse and the common frog, it is important to first understand their background. Their habitats, physical characteristics, and many more important factors of these animals. In the following subsections we will be comparing the similarities and differences in the digestive systems of the thoroughbred horse and the common frog. Although it may seem like the digestive system of two animals would not distinct from each other there are many factors we may not be aware of.
II. Background information on the Thoroughbred Horse
• Thoroughbred horses are commonly found in forests or open plains, usually put into domestic barns to be raised. (The editors, 1999)
• Thoroughbred horses are in fact herbivores which means that their source of nutrition is mostly plants or plant like organisms. (The editors, 1999)
• The average height of a Thoroughbred horse is 16 hands(64 inches), live up to 25-35 years, and weigh up to 1,000 pounds. (The editors, 1999)
• Thoroughbreds are solid colored and developed in England mostly for racing and jumping purposes. (The editors, 1999)
• Thoroughbreds are actually far from being endangered animals, a study in 2005 claimed that there was a total of 1,291,807 Thoroughbred horses. (The editors, 1999)
• Thoroughbreds are said to have slender bodies, wide chests, stunted backs, and gentle heads. (The editors, 1999)
III. Background information on the Common Frog
• The Common Frog is by far the most identifiable amphibian throughout Ireland and Britain, they are habituated anywhere near fit breeding ponds. (Froglife Trust Registered Charity, 2017)
• Have silky skin and long legs for jumping swiftly. (Froglife Trust Registered Charity, 2017)
• The male common frog grows up to 9cm in length and the females grow up to 13cm in length. (Froglife Trust Registered Charity, 2017)
• Mostly are shades of green olive, brown but may come in other bright colors (Froglife Trust Registered Charity, 2017)
• Their feeding habits are usually on vertebrates at night, during the winter they hibernate and they can lay up to 2000 eggs. (Froglife Trust Registered Charity, 2017)
IV. Digestive System of the Thoroughbred Horse
• The horse digestive system consists of the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, the hind gut, caecum, large colon, rectum, anus, and digestive tightrope. (Cubitt, 2010)
• Does not have various compartments in the stomach like cows do, the horses stomach works like a humans’. (Cubitt, 2010)
• First it digests the food in the horses’ foregut and then ferments it in the hindgut. (Cubitt, 2010)
• You should think of the horses’ digestive system as two separate sections. (Cubitt, 2010)
• The first part is more towards the digestive system of a dog, pig, or human. The second part of the digestive system is more like the “rumen of the cow”. (Cubitt, 2010)
V. Digestive System of the Common Frog
• The digestive system of a frog consists of the mouth, Pharynx, Esophagus, Stomach, Small and Large intestine, Cloaca, and Accessory Organs. (Tutor Vista, 2017)
• The frogs diet mostly is of flies and insects. It catches its food with its tongue which is sticky enough to have its prey stick. (Tutor Vista, 2017)
• The liquid digested foods are taken out through the bladder and the solid digested foods of the frog are taken out through the Cloaca. (Tutor Vista, 2017)
• All the food taken in by the frog is made into small nutrients so that the cells of the frog can use whichever nutrients it needs according to the correct part. (Tutor Vista, 2017)
• The saliva that the frogs have help change the starch from their food into sugar. (Tutor Vista, 2017)
VI. Comparison of both digestive systems
• The horse is a herbivore vs the frog which is a carnivore, that alone requires different amounts of effort and body parts to get the required amount of nutrients each body needs. (Randeou, 2017)
• A frogs’ liver is designed to eliminate 10 times more uric acid as the liver of the horse. (Randeou, 2017)
• The frogs’ small intestine is three to six times the length of his trunk. That is designed for quicker elimination of the food that gets bad quicker. The horses’ small intestine is ten to twelve times the length of its body, it’s made to keep food inside for a long period so that the good nutrients can be taken out before entering the large intestine. (Randeou, 2017)
• The frogs’ stomach breaks down the digestive enzymes with around 10 times more hydrochloric acid than the horses’ stomach. (Randeou, 2017)
• The frog believe it or not actually has a larger stomach than the horse (they mean how much food is able to be digested at a time). (Randeou, 2017)
• The frogs saliva does not have digestive enzymes but the horses’ saliva contains digestive enzymes. (Randeou, 2017)
VII. Conclusion
• Not yet written, I want to write my complete literature review to be able to incorporate all the details perfectly into my conclusion. Leaving it for last.
Bibliography
Andrews, F. M. (2015). Gastric juice pH measurement in horses: Three-quarters of a century of history!. Equine Veterinary Education, 27(12), 633-636. doi:10.1111/eve.12505
– This article allowed me to gain more knowledge towards the end of my lit review on the different things that go on in the digestive system of the horse. It taught me about the gastric pH measurement in the horse but it also covered many other topics I touched on in the lit review. Allowed me to get new information to include in my comparison of the frog and horse digestive system. Truly amazing article and definitely was relevant to my literature review.
Bridges, T. C., & Gates, R. S. (2016). MODELING THE GROWTH OF THOROUGHBRED HORSES: THE RELATIONSHIP OF BIRTH HEIGHT, GESTATION TIME, AND WITHER HEIGHT AT MATURITY. Transactions Of The ASABE, 59(5), 1383-1391. doi:10.13031/trans.59.11690
– This article gave me insight into the development, nutrition, habitat, and physical characteristics of the horse. These were things I needed to include into my knowledge in the background information section of the thoroughbred horse. Pretty simple article but it included all the necessary components to put into this literature review. Obviously it was very relevant to my topic of thoroughbred horses’.
Cichorska, B., Komosa, M., Nogowsk, L., Maćkowiak, P., & Józefia, D. (2014). Significance of Nutrient Digestibility in Horse Nutrition – A Review. Annals Of Animal Science, 14(4), 779-797. doi:10.2478/aoas-2014-0059
– This article written on the significance of nutrient digestibility in horse nutrition gave me amazing knowledge on the digestive system of the horse. This article went more into the scientific aspect and used more scientific words but it still got the point across perfectly. The digestive system of the horse is wonderfully made and this article allowed me to appreciate it. So yes, this article was definitely relevant towards my research on the digestive system of the thoroughbred horse.
(Cubitt, 2010)
– I chose this citation because it was relevant to my topic on the digestive system of the thoroughbred horse. This was very helpful towards my studies on the digestive system because it provided a picture of the horse with its digestive system inside which allows me to be able to locate the different sections and understand their performance in the system. This article also gave me amazing insight into the details I was not aware of and how much work the digestive system of the horse does. I know this was from a website but it was the most informative, I found a article in the FIU library which I cited that gave me the similar information about the digestive system of the thoroughbred horse.
(Froglife Trust Registered Charity, 2017)
– This website gave me the perfect simple understanding of the digestive system of the common frog. It provided pictures, detailed information, and some information on their eating habits. It contained the right information for my general background knowledge of the common frog. It was the perfect fit for that subtopic of the literature review. Perfectly relevant towards this literature review without all the unnecessary extra words.
Johansson, F., Lederer, B., & Lind, M. I. (2010). Trait Performance Correlations across Life Stages under Environmental Stress Conditions in the Common Frog, Rana temporaria. Plos ONE, 5(7), 1-8.
– This article gave me information on the habitat, and eating habits of the common frog. It also allowed me to gain extra knowledge to apply to the comparison subtopic of my literature review. I did not cite this yet as I have not written the full literature review but it perfectly captures the essential things to cover in this literature review paper. Completely relevant towards this lit review, and gives me knowledge on other fun facts that are not needed necessarily for this paper.
Pennisi, E. (2005). The Dynamic Gut. Science, 307(5717), 1896-1899.
– This article in FIU provided me with extra information on the digestive system of the frog. This article covered various other animals which did not relate to my research. The part about the frogs was what pertained to my research and it was very helpful towards my literature review. I would say it was relevant to my paper but not the most helpful.
(Randeou, 2017)
– This went more into detail with the comparison aspect of my literature review. It helped me gain more knowledge about the digestive systems. Even though I had already learned about the digestive systems I had not yet learned about the small details. It was very relevant towards that subtopic of my literature review and I appreciated how it was written to understand easily.
(The editors, 1999)
– This article let me learn the basic background information of the thoroughbred horse. The article was very informative even providing me with the height and colors of the horses’ so it was great to come across it to help me out. Clearly this was very relevant and helpful towards the background information portion of the literature review.
(Tutor Vista, 2017)
– This gave me insight into the digestive system functions of the common frog. It provided me with a picture and other places to look up the information provided. It was easy to understand and not so complex which was perfect. This was very relevant towards the portion of the digestive system of the frogs.
Womble, M., Pickett, M., & Nascone-Yoder, N. (2016). Frogs as integrative models for understanding digestive organ development and evolution. Seminars In Cell & Developmental Biology, 5192-105. doi:10.1016/j.semcdb.2016.02.001
– This article as well as many of the others helped me with the digestive system of the frog which is clearly relevant towards my literature review. This article helped me back up information which I had found on some websites which made me feel better about the things I had learned from the websites. Well written and clear on the digestive system of the frog.