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cloaca |
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cloaca (klōā`kə), in biology, enlarged posterior end of the digestive tract of some animals. The cloaca, from the Latin word for sewer, is a single chamber into which pass solid and liquid waste materials as well as the products of the reproductive organs, the gametes. Cloacas are found in amphibians, reptiles, birds, and lower mammals; higher mammals have a separate rectal outlet, the anus. The term cloaca is also used for analogous chambers in many invertebrates, such as worms of the phylum Nematoda Nematoda (nĕm'ətōd`ə) ..... Click the link for more information. . cloacaIn vertebrates, common chamber and outlet into which the intestinal, urinary, and genital tracts open. It is present in amphibians, reptiles, birds, some fishes (e.g., sharks), and monotreme mammals but is absent in placental mammals and most bony fishes. Certain animals (e.g., many reptiles and some birds, including ducks) have an accessory organ (penis) within the cloaca that is used to direct the sperm into the female's cloaca. Most birds mate by joining their cloacas in a “cloacal kiss”; muscular contractions transfer the sperm from the male to the female. cloaca a cavity in the pelvic region of most vertebrates, except higher mammals, and certain invertebrates, into which the alimentary canal and the genital and urinary ducts open |
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| 50] of hMPV in the conjunctivae and respiratory tracts of 4 juvenile turkeys (age and breed of turkeys were not mentioned) and over a 3-week period examined the birds for clinical signs and virus replication by sampling cloacal and throat swabs. Unfortunately, here and there in this and other chapters, Crouch adopts a rather bullying, sneering tone often accompanied by cloacal allusions addressed generally to persons with whom he disagrees. A torso may rise conventionally up to an Elizabethan ruff only to be topped by the head of a beagle; a man may make a hat out of a cloacal nest of sausages; a woman may have one head but three faces, each sharing at least one eye with its neighbor. |
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