1/2/2024 0 Comments Freedom synonymĪt different times in their life, human beings will expel feces of different colors and textures. Breast feeding babies expel soft, pale yellowish, and not quite malodorous matter but once the baby begins to eat, and the body starts expelling bilirubin from dead red blood cells, its matter acquires the familiar brown color. Īfter the meconium, the first stool expelled, a newborn's feces contains only bile, which gives it a yellow-green color. A combination of bile and bilirubin, which comes from dead red blood cells, gives feces the typical brown color. Normally it is semisolid, with a mucus coating. The appearance of human fecal matter varies according to diet and health. Extensive hardening of the feces that interrupts this routine for several days or more is called constipation. To maintain nutrients in soil it is therefore important that feces returns to the area from which they came, which is not always the case in human society where food may be transported from rural areas to urban populations and then feces disposed of into a river or sea.ĭepending on the individual and the circumstances, human beings may defecate several times a day, every day, or once every two or three days. This cycling of matter is known as the biogeochemical cycle. Organisms that subsist on dead organic matter or detritus are known as detritivores, and play an important role in ecosystems by recycling organic matter back into a simpler form that plants and other autotrophs may absorb once again. Provided the seed can withstand the pathway through the digestive system, it is not only likely to be far away from the parent plant, but is even provided with its own fertilizer. This mode of seed dispersal is highly successful, as seeds dispersed around the base of a plant are unlikely to succeed and often are subject to heavy predation. An advantage for a plant in having fruit is that animals will eat the fruit and unknowingly disperse the seed in doing so. Animals who eat fruit are known as frugivores. This process is known as coprophagia, and occurs in various animal species such as young elephants eating the feces of their mothers to gain essential gut flora, or by other animals such as dogs, rabbits, and monkeys.įeces and urine, which reflect ultraviolet light, are important to raptors such as kestrels, who can see the near ultraviolet and thus find their prey by their middens and territorial markers. Feces serves not only as a basic food, but also as a supplement to the usual diet of some animals. Some may specialize in feces, while others may eat other foods. Many organisms feed on feces, from bacteria to fungi to insects such as dung beetles, who can sense odors from long distances. This means that of all food eaten, a significant amount of energy remains for the decomposers of ecosystems. ![]() Although it is lower in energy than the food from which it is derived, feces may retain a large amount of energy, often 50% of that of the original food. EcologyĪfter an animal has digested eaten material, the remains of that material are discharged from its body as waste. The forces required to expel the feces is generated through muscular contractions and a build-up of gases inside the gut, prompting the sphincter to relieve the pressure and to release the feces. This process requires pressures that may reach 100 millimetres of mercury (3.9 inHg) (13.3 kPa) in humans and 450 millimetres of mercury (18 inHg) (60 kPa) in penguins. Feces is discharged through the anus or cloaca during defecation.
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