![]() Grazers crop grasses and other ground plants on land or scrape algae and other organisms from surfaces in the water. Many animals use mixed strategies, shifting from one method to another as different kinds of food become available, or using combinations of methods simultaneously. Thus, theories of feeding are concerned with such issues as food choice, prey switching, sensory mechanisms for recognizing and locating food, optimal search strategies, overcoming the defenses of food organisms, and how to compromise between finding food and not carelessly falling prey to some other hunter.įollowing are some of the basic methods that animals use to acquire food. In addition to energy, they must acquire specific nutrients, such as certain salts, which provide no energy but are crucial for survival. Obviously, animals must gain more energy from their food than they expend in searching for it, capturing it, and consuming it. For example, the Everglades kite (a small hawk) feeds on just one species of snail, and many feather mites can survive on just one species of bird.īehavioral ecologists who study feeding strategies are often concerned with theories of optimal foraging. Others are food specialists (stenophagous), feeding on a narrow range of foods. Coyotes, opossums, and humans are good examples. Some animals are food generalists (euryphagous) that is, they eat a wide variety of foods. Consequently, animals have a variety of feeding strategies to meet these challenges. Almost every living species is eaten by something else, but food varies in its spatial distribution, seasonal availability, predictability, how well hidden or easily detected it is, how much competition for it exists, and whether or not it can resist being eaten. A large percentage of an animal's life is occupied with acquiring food. Make sure you have the illustration regarding early development (blastula) in your notes from yesterday.All animals are heterotrophic, meaning they must eat other organisms, living or dead, to acquire organic nutrients.Create a booklet showing the body plan, water flow, and reproduction of a sponge.Spicules can direct sunlight to organisms living in the sponge when sunlight is low or limited.Photosynthetic organisms can live in a sponge and provide it with sufficient O2 and food while the sponge provides the organism a place to live.Ideal habitats for snails, sea stars, sea cucumbers, and shrimp.Gemmules: groups of archaeocytes surrounded by spicules can survive freezing temperatures and drought grow when conditions are favorable.Budding: part of parent breaks off and grows into a new and identical sponge.Internal Fertilization: process where sperm fertilizes the egg inside the sponge body sperm swims in water to a new sponge, then archaeocytes carry sperm to the egg (attached to walls of sponge).A sponge can produce both sperm and egg on the same plant, but not at the same time.Two nudibranch molluscs, Helgerta sp., feeding on a thinly encrusting red sponge and an algal mat ![]() Some produce toxins that warn predators and make them inedible.As water moves through sponge cells, O2 can diffuse into cells and CO2 along with wastes can diffuse out of the cells and into the surrounding water.Sponges rely on the movement of water to carry out body functions.Choanocytes engulf food particles and digest them particles are then passed on to archaeocytes to finish off digestive processes.Digestion takes place intracellular (within the cells).Sponges are filter feeders that silt microscopic food particles from water.Spongin is present in soft sponges network of flexible protein that CAN make up a sponge skeleton.Archaeocytes: specialized cells that make up spicules.Spicule: spike shaped structure made of calcium carbonate or silica.Water flow is the simple mechanism a sponge uses for feeding, respiration, circulation, and excretion. ![]()
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