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Macroscopic Anatomy of the Stomach of the Hippopotamidae GRAY, 1821 *
Author(s) -
Langer Peter
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
anatomia, histologia, embryologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.34
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1439-0264
pISSN - 0340-2096
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0264.1975.tb00647.x
Subject(s) - stomach , compartment (ship) , anatomy , biology , geology , oceanography , biochemistry
Summary The stomach of the Hippopotamidae is four‐chambered. The first three compartments situated near the cardia, the visceral and the parietal (including the vestibulum) blindsac together with the connecting chamber, are forestomachs with non‐glandular epithelium. The fourth compartment has a glandular lining. The compartments of the stomach make it possible to store the food and enable symbionts to live within the organ. Very likely the complicated system of folds within the forestomachs permits the separation of gastric liquid and the fine food particles from the coarse particles that remain in the forestomachs for a longer time to be decomposed by microbial activity. Since it can be assumed that the absorption of products of microbial activity and the increase of the forestomachs' internal surfaces corellate with each other, the factor of increase in surface area has been measured in these gastric compartments. Digestion in the hippo stomach could be ruminant‐like. Most functional phenomena in the stomach of the Hippopotamidae, however, are not yet clarified.