cloaca
Sign in to savethumb|Cloaca of a red-tailed hawk
AI overview
A cloaca is a single opening found in birds, reptiles, and some other animals that serves as the exit point for waste from the digestive system, urine, and reproductive organs. This combined system is significant because it allows these animals to conserve water and energy by processing and eliminating multiple types of waste through one passage.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Birds
- Fish
- Mammals
- Monotremes
- Marsupials
- Placental mammals
- Reptiles
- Cloacal respiration in animals
- See also
- References
thumb|Cloaca of a red-tailed hawk
A cloaca ( ), : cloacae ( or ), or vent, is the rear orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive (rectum), reproductive, and urinary tracts (if present) of many vertebrate animals. All amphibians, reptiles, birds, cartilaginous fish and a few mammals (monotremes, afrosoricids, and marsupial moles) have this orifice, from which they excrete both urine and feces; this is in contrast to most placental mammals, which have separate orifices for evacuation and reproduction. Excretory openings with analogous purpose in some invertebrates are also sometimes called cloacae. Mating through the cloaca is called cloacal copulation and cloacal kissing.