That meant that fast eaters' food was sailing down their alimentary canals in lumps and not as chyme.
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One way this happens is that the seeds of many species are just the right size and shape to endure passage through the alimentary canals of the animals that swallow them.
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This bug, which makes its living by fermenting otherwise-indigestible carbohydrate polymers in dietary fibre, is abundant in the alimentary canals of farmers and hunter-gatherers in places like Africa, rare in western Europeans and Americans, and nearly nonexistent in children with ASD.
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This bone, the preglossale, helps stiffen the tongue when holding seeds. Other adaptations towards eating seeds are specialised bills and elongated and specialised alimentary canals.
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Malpighian tubules of a dissected cockroach, indicated by yellow arrow. Scale bar, 2 mm. Malpighian tubules are slender tubes normally found in the posterior regions of arthropod alimentary canals. Each tubule consists of a single layer of cells that is closed off at the distal end with the proximal end joining the alimentary canal at the junction between the midgut and hindgut.
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Males of some species also develop large, highly specialized eyes that may aid in identifying mates in dark environments. The male ceratioids are significantly smaller than a female anglerfish, and may have trouble finding food in the deep sea. Furthermore, growth of the alimentary canals of some males becomes stunted, preventing them from feeding. Some taxa have jaws that are never suitable or effective for prey capture.
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A variety of microorganisms have been isolated from the alimentary canals and frass of M. rotundata. Bacteria include Bacillus firmus, B. licheniformis, B. megaterium, B. pumilus, and Streptomyces and fungus includes Trichosporonoides megachiliensis. With respect to the development of chalkbrood, it has been suggested that the bacteria and fungi promote the inhabitation of A. aggregata. This is supported by observations in chalkbrood diseased larvae, which contain higher amounts of bacteria and fungi in their gut than in healthy larvae.
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An ant guards its aphids Ants tending aphids Some species of ants farm aphids, protecting them on the plants where they are feeding, and consuming the honeydew the aphids release from the terminations of their alimentary canals. This is a mutualistic relationship, with these dairying ants milking the aphids by stroking them with their antennae. Although mutualistic, the feeding behaviour of aphids is altered by ant attendance. Aphids attended by ants tend to increase the production of honeydew in smaller drops with a greater concentration of amino acids.
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Camera lucida view of the best preserved book gill of O. augusti Only the alimentary canals of a few species of eurypterids, such as Carcinosoma newlini, Acutiramus cummingsi and Eurypterus lacustris, have been described. However, the excellent levels of preservation of the O. augusti fossils have allowed the description of what most likely was the anterior portion of the gut. Between the two coxal (from the coxa, the point of union with the appendages) muscle masses of the swimming leg, a spiral-shaped structure was found. A similar structure in the stylonurine Hibbertopterus wittebergensis, in which a spiral valve has been found near the posterior zone of the prosoma, has been reported.
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Based on sequencing of 16S rRNA, O. valericigenes is a member of the clostridial cluster IV, a subgroup of clostridial bacteria typically found in the alimentary canals of animals, including humans. Its closest cultured relatives at the time of its original description in 2007 were Clostridium orbiscindens (found in human feces) and Clostridium viride. It also exhibits a close relationship to Oscillospira guillermondii, a large bacterial species found in the guts of ruminant animals, which has yet to be grown in culture despite having been first observed in 1913. O. valericigenes is unusual in that its 16S rRNA more closely resembles that of uncultured bacteria in animal digestive tracts than the other cultured members of clostridial cluster IV. Its genome was sequenced in 2012 and found to contain some genes identifiably homologous to those known to be involved in sporulation; however, it is missing many genes involved in the later stages of sporulation that are widely distributed among clostridial bacteria.
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