Digestion overview
The process of digestion is the process of breaking down food in order to make energy, promote growth and also help cell repair. It typically occurs through mechanical digestion, which is chewing food. If not mechanically digested, food can also be digested through chemical digestion, which is the breakdown of food with stomach acids. Digestion begins with the entrance of food into the mouth, once it passes through the mouth as a bolus, or ball of broken down food fragments, it then passes through the esophagus and after, stomach. The circulatory system also helps with the breaking down of nutrients. This is since enzymes chemically mash food in each organ. Once the nutrients of the cells are broken down, they are carried throughout the blood stream and absorbed by cells with the process of diffusion. These broken nutrients ultimately help provide energy to the body. Cellular respiration is the process in where chemical energy in glucose is used to make ATP. ATP is a form of energy that is used to transfer chemical energy within cells. With this, small energy triggers make everything in the body function. Cellular respiration can also be expressed as Glucose + Oxygen ---> Carbon dioxide + Water + Energy (ATP).
digestion in sally lightfoot crabs
The Sally Lightfoot crab's diet consists of algae, snails, mussels, shell fish beds, decayed vegetation and sea weed [1]. They obtain food by catching and tearing food with their pinchers and putting the food into their mouths to digest. They have a specific claw to tear food and another specialized claw to hold onto the food they catch [2]. While hunting, they can sense their prey and attack them very stealthily. With such large claws, it is easy for them to collect and consume small prey.This species digest food similarly to humans, they digest food mechanically and chemically. They have a pair of grinding stomachs known as the gastric mill, this helps them mechanically digest their food. These stomachs mash and grind the food into nutrients then used for energy. Chemically, this species have guts with walls filled with sacs. Food paste they produce goes into the sacs, and the sac lining discharges digestive enzymes. This then breaks down the food into carbohydrates, fats, proteins, nutrients, water and waste products. [3]