A cloaca is a multipurpose hole that lots of animals have. Rather than having separate holes for peeing, pooping and reproduction, a cloaca is a hole that does all of the above. They're the norm in birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Almost no mammals have them, we go with a selection of specialised holes instead.
@vagina_museum But not far into the cloaca, all three functions have their own openings? So a cloaca is like if a mammal had a sleeve added onto its rear end?
There's exceptions to the rule that mammals don't have cloacas, of course monotremes, tenrecs, golden moles (who aren't moles) and marsupial moles (who are not moles). We're delighted to share a few examples that we've told you about before.
First of all, there's platypuses, those weird little existential crisis provokers: https://masto.ai/
Then there's the tenrecs, who hold some unusual records: https://masto.ai/
There's also a case to be made for marsupials having something similar to a cloaca - their reproductive junk and urethra open out into the same place. You can learn more about this fascinating anatomy using the drop bear as an example https://masto.ai/
Anyway, cloacas aren't especially common in mammals, but for the other amniotes and the amphibians, that's just how they live. The word derives from the Latin for sewer or drain, which has roots in "to cleanse", and it may also sometimes be referred to as a vent.
Some animals have a phallus which emerges from the cloaca, which helps out with reproduction. It's inserted into the female's cloaca.
And some animals might have exceedingly complicated extensions on the cloaca - for example, female ducks have a corkscrewing maze leading to the reproductive tract with a ton of blind alleys to prevent unwanted fertilisation.
And some female animals have prehensile lips capable of picking sperm up on their cloacas. Like Captain Janeway, possibly. https://masto.ai/
it has been brought to our attention that the minge in question belongs to a plant-based chicken substitute. science has not yet explored the urogenital system of the vegan chicken. further research is required to confirm whether a vegan chicken has a minge or a cloaca.
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