What is the function of the gastrovascular cavity?
Open in App
Solution
Functions of gastrovascular cavity:
In two main animal phyla, the Coelenterates or Cnidarians and the Platyhelminthes, the gastrovascular cavity is the fundamental organ of digestion and circulation (flatworms).
The hollow could be branched into a network of canals.
The gastrovascular system of cnidarians is known as the coelenteron, and it is also described as a "blind gut" or "blind sac" since food and waste enter and exit through the same orifice.
Cnidarians have a sac-like body with two different layers, the epidermis and gastrodermis, separated by a jellylike layer known as the mesoglea.
Extracellular digestion takes place in the sac-like body's central cavity. This cavity has only one opening to the outside, which is ringed by tentacles for collecting prey in most cnidarians.