Wiktionary
n. The digestive tract
WordNet
n. tubular passage of mucous membrane and muscle extending about 8.3 meters from mouth to anus; functions in digestion and elimination [syn: alimentary canal, alimentary tract, digestive tube, digestive tract, GI tract]
Wikipedia
The gastrointestinal tract, also known as the gut or alimentary canal, is a tube by which bilaterian animals (including humans) transfer food to the digestion organs. In large bilaterians, the gastrointestinal tract generally also has an exit, the anus, by which the animal disposes of feces (solid wastes). Some small bilaterians have no anus and dispose of solid wastes by other means (for example, through the mouth).
Animals that have gastrointestinal tracts are classified as either protostomes or deuterostomes. The digestive tract evolved separately in these two clades, an example of convergent evolution. The clades are distinguished based on their embryonic development: protostomes develop their mouths first, while deuterostomes develop their mouths second. Protostomes include arthropods, molluscs, and annelids, while deuterostomes include echinoderms and chordates.
The gastrointestinal tract contains thousands of different bacteria, but humans can be divided into three main groups based on those most prominent in the human gastrointestinal tract.
For more specific information on digestive organs, see specialized organs and behaviours.
Usage examples of "gastrointestinal tract".
Even if she had ingested spores, even if they had germinated, become bacteria, they would not be able to survive in her gastrointestinal tract.
The total picture was thus consistent with chronic anemia from blood loss through the gastrointestinal tract,* but the situation was more complex: A Coombs blood test was positive, suggesting that her body was also destroying red cells by an allergic mech.
The abdominal pain was the worst, as the disease was destroying her gastrointestinal tract throughout its ten-meter length, quite literally eating the delicate tissues designed to convert food into nutrients, and dumping infected blood down toward her rectum.
He's supposed to undergo a lower gastrointestinal tract examination that morning.
I may have been the only Minid who worried at all about the stability of Mount Tharaka's gastrointestinal tract.
He had made a bird, a rebellious bird whose insides apparently included a gastrointestinal tract.
Removal by modern painless methods of the gastrointestinal tract and substitution system will relieve you of the most acute cause of social rejection.
There was no sense in warning her about problems and pain sure to develop in her gastrointestinal tract.
Jill may have suffered from a bad back or soreness due to sports injuries, or she may have had psychosomatic problems such as spasms in her gastrointestinal tract.
No algae symbionts in the epidermis, so they were constantly eating and excreting through a hypertrophied gastrointestinal tract —.