Herbivore
Animals adapted to feed primarily on plants.
When an organism mainly consumes autotrophs—including plants, algae, and photosynthesizing bacteria—that feeding behavior is called herbivory.[1] Many herbivores host mutualistic bacteria and protozoans in their guts that assist in breaking down the cellulose found in plants.[2]
Quick Facts
- Field
- Ecology, Evolutionary Biology
- Known for
- Primary consumers in food chains; evolution of dental occlusion and mutualistic gut flora for digesting cellulose
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
The understanding of herbivory in geological time comes from three sources: fossilized plants, the observation of plant debris in fossilised animal faeces, and the construction of herbivore mouthparts.[3] In an 1854 publication examining fossilized teeth and skeletons, Richard Owen used the anglicized version of the term.[4] Evidence from fossils indicates that arthropods began consuming plants less than 20 million years after the first land plants appeared, contradicting the earlier belief that herbivory only emerged in the Mesozoic.[5] Grazing (exemplified by cows) and browsing (exemplified by moose) represent two distinct herbivore feeding strategies.[6][7]
What the research sources say
The Biology LibreTexts account lists feeding strategies including algivores, frugivores, folivores, nectarivores, granivores, graminivores, palynivores, mucivores, and xylophages.[7] According to the same source, smaller herbivores tend to choose high-quality forage, while selectivity decreases as body mass increases.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Herbivore" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Abraham, Martin A. A. Sustainability Science and Engineering, Volume 1. page 123. Publisher: Elsevier 2006. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Herbivore" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "symbiosis." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Credo Reference. Web. 17 September 2012.; Moran, "Symbiosis", Current Biology, 2006, p. 866–871 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Herbivore" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Labandeira, C.C., "Early History of Arthropod And Vascular Plant Associations 1", Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1998, p. 329–377 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Herbivore" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner, eds. (2000) The Oxford English Dictionary, vol. 8, p. 155.; J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner, eds. (2000) The Oxford English Dictionary, vol. 8, p. 155.; P.G.W. Glare, ed. (1990) The Oxford Latin Dictionary, p. 791.; P.G.W. Glare, ed. (1990) The Oxford Latin Dictionary, p. 2103. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Herbivore" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Labandeira, C., "The origin of herbivory on land: Initial patterns of plant tissue consumption by arthropods", Insect Science, June 2007, p. 259–275; Labandeira, C.C., "Early History of Arthropod And Vascular Plant Associations 1", Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1998, p. 329–377 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Herbivore" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Janis, "Body Size in Mammalian Paleobiology: Estimation and Biological Implications", Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 255–299; Belovsky, G.E., "Optimal foraging and community structure: The allometry of herbivore food selection and competition", Evolutionary Ecology, November 1997, p. 641–672 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "16.3: Herbivory", Biology LibreTexts, 2022-07-21. facts only, no text reused. bio.libretexts.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Herbivore (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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