cloaca
Zoology.
the common cavity into which the intestinal, urinary, and generative canals open in birds, reptiles, amphibians, many fishes, and certain mammals.
a similar cavity in invertebrates.
a sewer, especially an ancient sewer.
Origin of cloaca
1Other words from cloaca
- clo·a·cal, adjective
- pre·clo·a·cal, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use cloaca in a sentence
For help with their description, Vinther says, the study authors looked to the wide-ranging cloaca of other land-dwelling vertebrates.
This fossilized butthole gives us a rare window into dinosaur sex | Ellie Shechet | January 20, 2021 | Popular-ScienceThe dinosaur owner of this particular cloaca is an approximately 120 million-year-old Psittacosaurus, hailing from what is now the Liaoning province in northeastern China.
This fossilized butthole gives us a rare window into dinosaur sex | Ellie Shechet | January 20, 2021 | Popular-ScienceThe cloaca of birds, our present-day dinosaurs, look “kind of like a cyst that needs to be popped,” Vintehr explains, while the cloaca of crocodile are covered in distinct scales, forming a sort of raised lobe with a slit in the middle.
This fossilized butthole gives us a rare window into dinosaur sex | Ellie Shechet | January 20, 2021 | Popular-ScienceAnd some reptiles add a fourth function to the overworked cloacal repository–that of respiration as well.
What the Man With No Ass Crack Can Teach Darwinists and Creationists | Kent Sepkowitz | January 14, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTElsewhere the wall of the cloaca and cloacal groove are merely in contact but do not communicate.
The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 | Francis Maitland Balfour
Figure 5H represents a section through the cloacal region, cl, showing the openings into the cloaca of the Wolffian ducts, wdo.
Development of the Digestive Canal of the American Alligator | Albert M. ReeseThese muscles belong really to the muscles in connection with the Mllerian and Wolffian ducts and skin, not to the cloacal region.
The Origin of Vertebrates | Walter Holbrook GaskellThe downward prolongation of the segmental duct to join the posterior or cloacal extremity of the alimentary tract (9b).
The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume IV (of 4) | Francis Maitland BalfourThe figure shews the solid anterior extremity of the cloacal involution.
The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume IV (of 4) | Francis Maitland Balfour
British Dictionary definitions for cloaca
/ (kləʊˈeɪkə) /
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
a sewer
Origin of cloaca
1Derived forms of cloaca
- cloacal, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for cloaca
[ klō-ā′kə ]
The body cavity into which the intestinal, urinary, and genital canals empty in birds, reptiles, amphibians, most fish, and monotremes. The cloaca has an opening for expelling its contents from the body, and in females it serves as the depository for sperm. Also called vent
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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