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Monogastric versus Ruminant Digestive Systems

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State

A monogastric system has one stomach chamber; a ruminant system has four — rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum — supporting microbes that ferment cellulose ruminants cannot digest alone.

Show

Cattle regurgitate and re-chew cud from the reticulum before it passes to the abomasum, the "true" stomach equivalent.

Watch for

Pseudo-ruminants like camels have only three chambers and instead ferment roughage mainly in an enlarged cecum.