Download Heterotrophic Nutrition

Heterotrophic Nutrition
A heterotroph is an organism that
cannot synthesize its own food
and is dependent on breaking
down complex organic substances
for nutrition
1
What types of feeders are
there?
Omnivores
(omni-, all; -vore, eater)
Omnivores
• Omnivores eat Plant and
animal material.
• Omnivores cannot digest
cellulose which is found
in cell walls of plants.
This goes through them
undigested and is
roughage.
• Some insect omnivores
are pollinators, so they
are important to the life
cycle of some plants.
Large Omnivores
Carnivores
caro meaning 'meat' or 'flesh' and
vorare meaning 'to devour')
Carnivores
• Carnivores feed on
other animals.
• They are secondary
consumers
Herbivores
Herbivora or herba meaning a
small plant or herb and vorare, to
eat or devour
Herbivorous Strategies
•
Herbivores have different
strategies to break down
cellulose.
•
ruminants have a large
forestomachs which contain
bacteria that ferment vegetation
and break down cellulose.
Examples of ruminants are cattle,
sheep and deer.
•
Caudal fermentors, or cecal
digestors have bacteria in their
large intestine to allow digestion
of cellulose through fermentation.
Examples of cecal digestors
include horses and rabbits.
•
See later in topic for details
Feeding Mechanism
Different animals use different
strategies to feed
Bulk Feeders
Bulk feeders eat food in
lumps or whole.
• organisms have
specialised teeth for the
food they eat.
Filter feeders
• Filter feeders remove
food that is
suspended in water.
• Baleen whales have comb like
plates to sieve shrimp and
small fish
• Other fish like basking sharks
have gill rakers to strain
plankton from the water.
•
Fluid feeders
• Many insects, some fish and
mammals feed on fluids such
as blood, plant sap or nectar.
• Fluid feeders have specialised
mouth parts
•
Deposit feeders
• These feed by sifting
through the substrate
to find food.
• Insects may burrow
through detritus or
dung
• .
• Benthic fish like
catfish suck up mud
and ingest the plant
and animal material in
it