You are on page 1of 1

Gastrovascular cavity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The gastrovascular cavity is the primary organ of digestion and


circulation in two major animal phyla: the Cnidaria (including
jellyfish and corals) and Platyhelminthes (flatworms). The cavity
may be extensively branched into a system of canals. In cnidarians,
the gastrovascular system is also known as the coelenteron, and is
commonly known as a "blind gut" or "blind sac", since food enters
and waste exits through the same orifice.

The radially symmetrical cnidarians have a sac-like body in two


distinct layers, the epidermis and gastrodermis, with a jellylike layer
called the mesoglea between. Extracellular digestion takes place The gastrovascular cavity or coelenteron of
within the central cavity of the sac-like body. This cavity has only the flower hat jelly, Olindias formosa (arrow
one opening to the outside which, in most cnidarians, is surrounded #2, colored gray)
by tentacles for capturing prey.

References
Scott, Thomas A. (1996). Concise Encyclopedia Biology.
Walter de Gruyter. pp. 376379. ISBN 3110889560.
Slobodkin, Lawrence; Bossert, Patricia (2010). "Cnidaria". In
Thorp, James H.; Covich, Alan P. Ecology and Classification
of North American Freshwater Invertebrates (3rd ed.).
Amsterdam: Academic Press. pp. 125142. Gastrovascular system of the flatworm
ISBN 9780123748553. Dugesia, colored yellow

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gastrovascular_cavity&oldid=803519847"

This page was last edited on 3 October 2017, at 00:56.


Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

You might also like