Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. [1] While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding behavior. [2] Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by consuming dead animal and plant ...
The terms detritivore and decomposer are often used interchangeably, but they describe different organisms. Detritivores are usually arthropods and help in the process of remineralization. Detritivores perform the first stage of remineralization, by fragmenting the dead plant matter, allowing decomposers to perform the second stage of ...
In particular, many bottom feeding animals living in mud flats feed in this way. In particular, since excreta are materials which other animals do not need, whatever energy value they might have, they are often unbalanced as a source of nutrients, and are not suitable as a source of nutrition on their own.
[citation needed] Typical saprophagic animals include sedentary polychaetes such as amphitrites (Amphitritinae, worms of the family Terebellidae) and other terebellids. The eating of wood, whether live or dead, is known as xylophagy. The activity of animals feeding only on dead wood is called sapro-xylophagy and those animals, sapro-xylophagous.
The fungus-like protist saprobes are specialized to absorb nutrients from nonliving organic matter, such as dead organisms or their wastes. For instance, many types of oomycetes grow on dead animals or algae. Marine saprobic protists have the essential function of returning inorganic nutrients to the water.
Tardigrades feed by sucking animal or plant cell fluids, or on detritus. A pair of stylets pierce the prey; the pharynx muscles then pump the fluids from the prey into the gut. A pair of salivary glands secrete a digestive fluid into the mouth, and produce replacement stylets each time the animal moults. [ 3 ]
Protozoa (sg.: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a polyphyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic debris. [1] [2] Historically, protozoans were regarded as "one-celled animals".
A given organism's ability to contribute to decomposition is largely dependent on what enzymes that organism possesses. Enzymes for the digestion of molecules like fats, proteins, and starch are widespread and many organisms, from microbes to mammals, have them. [9] As a result, those molecules are the first to decompose in the environment.