Digestive Properties Digestive Anatomy The following diagram is specific to the Kangaroo, but is comparable to that of a wallaby: 消化系统属性消化系统解剖
下图具体到袋鼠，但相当于一个小袋鼠的：
Photo taken from the book published byStevens and Humes (1995 on Comparative Physiology of the Vertebrate Digestive System（图片来自Stevens and Humes (1995出版的脊椎动物消化系统的比较生理学） Digestive Physiology This specie has temporal, masseter and pterygoid muscles in the jaw and temple that help it chew and bite on things (Hume, 1989. Upon opening its mouth, the lower jaw moves forward in comparison to the upper and the pterygoid muscle contractions allow lower incisors to rub against the upper ones (Hume, 1989. This mechanism allows for grasping the food and once grasped, the lips work with the tongue to push food to the molars where it gets chewed up and passed into the stomach (Hume, 1989. 消化生理 这个物种在下颌和太阳穴有颞肌、咬肌和翼状肌帮助其咀嚼和咬东西。当打开它的嘴时，下颌较上颌向前移动，翼内肌的收缩使下切齿摩擦上切齿。这种机制用于抓取食物，一旦抓取，嘴唇与舌头一起工作将食物推动到臼齿进行咀嚼，并通过此处进入胃。
Digestive tract and stomach of the eastern grey kangaroo (Mucropus giganteus, a fore-gut fermenter,（东部灰袋鼠的消化道和胃，一个前肠发酵罐）50-70 kg body mass. From Hume (1982. Wallabies, alike other marsupials, are fore-gut fermenters that have an expanded and differentiated fore-stomach (Hume, 1989. Aside from being large and complex, their stomach is sacculated and has an oesophageal groove by-passing the sacculated region (Moir et al. 1956. The sacciform regions (with rapid declines of soluble carbs and tubiform regions (with uniform fibre digestion are responsible for microbial fermentation in the fore-stomach, whereas the hind-stomach holds the acid-pepsin-secreting region (Hume, 1989. The external musculature of the fore-stomach has 3 taenia and semi-lunar folds (Hume, 1989. Haustrations are formed between these folds that give it a colon-like appearance (Hume, 1989. This colon-like stomach reduces the digesta retention rate, which means less time is taken to break down the microbes of plant cell walls in the fore-stomach. (Hume, 1989. When digesta moves through the fore-stomach, the substrate is fermented and based less on soluble cell contents and more on its cell-wall constituents (Hume, 1989. Due to the wallaby’s large sacculated stomach and flask-like caecum, it is suggested pre-gastric bacteria fermentation dominates (Moir et al. 1956. This ruminant-like digestive morphology is what allows wallabies and their kangaroo cousins to survive on poor grazing. (Moir et al. 1956 像其他有袋目哺乳动物一样，小袋鼠具有一个扩大的分化了的前胃，也是前肠发酵罐。除了是庞大而复杂的，他们的胃呈囊状，并具有一个分流囊状区域的食管沟。该囊状区域（与用于溶性碳水化合物的快速下降）和管状区域（用于统一纤维消化）负责前胃中的微生物发酵，反之，后胃为胃酸蛋白酶分泌区。前胃的外部肌肉组织有3条绦虫状和半月形皱襞。Haustrations是这些皱襞之间形成的，并呈结肠样外形。这个结肠样的肠袢降低了食糜滞留率，这意味着前胃中用于分解解植物细胞壁上微生物的时间更少了。当食糜移动通过前胃时，底物被发酵，并且更少的基于可溶性细胞内容物而是更多在其细胞壁组分。由于袋鼠的大囊状胃和烧瓶状盲肠，决定了前胃细菌发酵占主导地位。是这种像反刍动物一般的消化道形态让小袋鼠和他们的袋鼠兄弟们能够在贫瘠的牧场生存下来。（莫尔等人1956年）
