Gastrovascular cavity

A digestive compartment with one opening that also distributes nutrients through an animal’s body. It combines digestion and internal transport without a separate circulatory system.

Extracellular digestion: The breakdown of food outside cells by enzymes released into a digestive space. Enzymes digest prey within the cavity before cells absorb the resulting nutrients.
Digestive system: The organs and processes that ingest food, break it down, and absorb nutrients. The cavity performs core digestive functions without the many specialized organs of larger systems.
Cnidaria: An animal phylum that includes jellyfish, sea anemones, corals, and hydras. A gastrovascular cavity is characteristic of cnidarians, though its form varies across the phylum.
Complete digestive system: A digestive tract with separate mouth and anus openings, allowing one-way passage of food. Its two openings permit sequential specialization that the cavity’s single opening does not.
Intracellular digestion: The breakdown of food inside cells, often within membrane-bound vesicles. Cavity digestion can be followed by cells taking in particles for further breakdown.
Alimentary canal: A digestive tube with a mouth at one end and an anus at the other. Unlike a complete canal, the cavity uses one opening for both intake and waste release.
Hydra: A small freshwater cnidarian with a tubular body and tentacles surrounding its mouth. Its central cavity is a clear example of digestion and nutrient distribution in a simple body.
Incomplete digestive system: A digestive system with one opening serving as both mouth and exit. This broader arrangement includes the gastrovascular cavity but can describe other simple digestive spaces.
Phagocytosis: A cellular process in which a cell engulfs particles into an internal vesicle. Some cavity-lining cells engulf food particles that extracellular digestion has only partly broken down.
Circulatory system: A body system that moves fluid to transport substances among tissues. The cavity distributes nutrients internally without a separate blood- or fluid-transport network.

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