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All heterotrophs (except blood and gut parasites) have to convert solid food into soluble compounds which are capable of being absorbed (digestion). Then the soluble products of digestion for the organism are being broken down for the release of energy (respiration). All heterotrophs depend on autotrophs for their nutrition. Heterotrophic ...
A heterotroph (/ ˈ h ɛ t ər ə ˌ t r oʊ f,-ˌ t r ɒ f /; [1] [2] from Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros) ' other ' and τροφή (trophḗ) ' nutrition ') is an organism that cannot produce its own food, instead taking nutrition from other sources of organic carbon, mainly plant or animal matter. In the food chain, heterotrophs are ...
An example is the koala, because it feeds only on eucalyptus leaves. Primary consumers that feed on many kinds of plants are called generalists. Secondary consumers are small/medium-sized carnivores that prey on herbivorous animals. Omnivores, which feed on both plants and animals, can be considered as being both primary and secondary consumers.
A well-known example of a specialist animal is the monophagous koala, which subsists almost entirely on eucalyptus leaves. The raccoon is a generalist, because it has a natural range that includes most of North and Central America, and it is omnivorous, eating berries, insects such as butterflies, eggs, and various small animals.
The largest living land animal, the African bush elephant, is a herbivore. This is a list of herbivorous animals, organized in a roughly taxonomic manner. In general, entries consist of animal species known with good certainty to be overwhelmingly herbivorous, as well as genera and families which contain a preponderance of such species.
Zooplankton sample including several species of copepods (1–5), gastropod larva (6) doliolids (7), fish eggs (8), and decapod larva (9) (Photo by Iole Di Capua). Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the "zoo-" prefix comes from Ancient Greek: ζῷον, romanized: zôion, lit.
Photoheterotrophs generate ATP using light, in one of two ways: [6] [7] they use a bacteriochlorophyll-based reaction center, or they use a bacteriorhodopsin.The chlorophyll-based mechanism is similar to that used in photosynthesis, where light excites the molecules in a reaction center and causes a flow of electrons through an electron transport chain (ETS).
A freshwater aquatic food web. The blue arrows show a complete food chain (algae → daphnia → gizzard shad → largemouth bass → great blue heron). A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community.