Feeding Flashcards
feeding definition
gathering and ingesting food
digestion
breakdown and transferring required nutrients into the body
Ways of obtaining nutrients
Autotrophic – including plants algae and some bacteria – able to produce their own food and energy
Heterotrophic – consumers – all animals must obtain nutrients from other plants or animals for energy and nutrients
Short food chains vs long
Short food chains deplete less energy prior to consumption thus more efficient than long food trains
Why did animals evolve within the sea
The ocean was a source of more of a more constant environment, so they didn’t have to evolve ways of dealing with so many different environmental factors
earliest metazoan marine life
Ediacaria period - 550myr ago
Feeding behaviours within ediacara period
detrivores and carnivores were able to capture protists and bacteria
* Primary productivity was and still is limited to the surface areas of the ocean
* Benthic organisms were and are dependent on organic detritus falling from the surface of the ocean
Exceptions of benthic organisms feeding on detritus
hydrothermal vents and cold seep ecosystems
Feeding methods
Small particle feeding
Large particle feeding
Fluid feeding
Small particle feeding
suspension or filter feeding – consume material suspended in water column
* Specialized flagellated cells – choanocytes – move flagella to draw in water through pores
* No gut – direct cellular ingestion of captured food
Filter feeding – mucociliary
- External mucociliary mechanisms – use motile cilia and mucus to capture food particles of the appropriate size
1. Create a current of water bearing particles
2. Separation of particles from the water
3. Transfer of particles to mouth
4. Ingestion occurs
Filter Feeding - Amphiuridae
- Feed by holding their arms into the water column and trapping particles in flowing water
- Particles are moved to the mouth using groove on their oral side
- In stagnant water they switch to deposit feeding
Deposit feeding
ingestion of living and non-living organic matter (crabs)
Setae
external setae or cirri = long closely spaced feeding setae on numerous appendages used to collect food
Baleen whales
– two sets of baleen plates – (keratin) sieve food particles from the water
Basking sharks
can strain 2000 L of water per hour swim with mouth continuously open to feed on the zooplankton – gill rakers trap and filter out plankton – mouth closes to swallow