Biology · Structural Organisation in Animals · NEET
Frogs are carnivores (they eat insects and small animals). Meat is easy to digest, so a long intestine is not needed. NCERT says: 'The alimentary canal is short because frogs are carnivores and hence the length of intestine is reduced.' Compare with herbivores, which have long intestines to digest tough plant material. NEET loves the reason 'carnivore → short gut'.
Mouth → buccal cavity → (through pharynx) → oesophagus → stomach → small intestine (starts at duodenum) → rectum → cloaca → outside. The oesophagus is a short tube. This full sequence is a common NEET fill-in-the-order question, so learn it in one line.
The frog captures food using its bilobed (two-lobed) tongue. The tongue is sticky and flicks out to catch insects. 'Bilobed tongue' is an easy one-mark memory fact — do not confuse it with the buccal cavity, which is the mouth chamber, not the food-catching organ.
Liver SECRETES bile. Gall bladder STORES that bile. Pancreas produces pancreatic juice with enzymes. Trick: liver makes it, gall bladder keeps it. Bile emulsifies (breaks down) fat; pancreatic juice digests carbohydrates and proteins. Both bile and pancreatic juice reach the duodenum through a COMMON bile duct.
In the stomach, HCl and gastric juices act on food to make a partly digested, semi-liquid paste called CHYME. This chyme moves from the stomach into the duodenum (first part of the small intestine). Final digestion then happens in the intestine, and absorption occurs through villi and microvilli.
No. Undigested solid waste moves into the rectum and passes out through the CLOACA. The cloaca is a single common chamber for digestive waste, urine and reproductive products. This 'one common exit' point is a very frequent NEET trap versus mammals, which have a separate anus.
Try the real previous-year questions from this chapter — each with the answer and a full solution.
The alimentary canal (the food tube from mouth to cloaca) and the digestive glands (liver, gall bladder and pancreas). Both work together to digest and absorb food.
Through the cloaca. The cloaca is a single common opening for digestive waste, urine and reproductive cells — the frog has no separate anus.
Bile emulsifies fat, meaning it breaks large fat drops into small ones so enzymes can act on them. Bile is secreted by the liver and stored in the gall bladder.
Final digestion takes place in the intestine. Digested food is absorbed through the finger-like folds of the inner intestinal wall called villi and microvilli, which increase surface area.
NEET often asks the exact order of the alimentary canal, the liver-vs-gall-bladder trap, the bilobed tongue, and the single cloacal opening. These are quick one-mark facts from Chapter 7, Structural Organisation in Animals.
