They
are wonderful
|
|
Certain organisms can exist as both plants
and animals. This reflects the imperfections in the way different groups
are classified (phyllums, families, etc). Because a more accurate classification
would be so much more complicated and that there is much disagreement
about how such a classification should be defined, we have to, at present,
satisfy ourselves with a simplier, but inaccurate classification of plants
and animals.
The animals
Many animal groups have representatives
on sand beaches, but many of these are very small, less than 1 millimetre,
and you tread on thousands of individuals with every step you take on
the sand. All these multiple celled animals are remarkable and interesting.
There is an abundance of specie and they can be of great ecological significance
for the beach environment.
These small animals deserve a better account, but wait, this
site is updated constantly.
Of the larger animals on the beach, the worm,
shell, mussel,
insect and crustacean
groups dominate.
Different types of consumers
Depending on how an animal eats, they
can be divided into grazers, suspension eaters, deposit feeders, carrion
eaters, parasites and predators. Grazers eat parts of, or whole plants;
suspension eaters consume particles suspended in the water (usually by
filtering); deposit feeders consume sediment (certain specie eat all the
sediment and the intestines absorb nutrients from the organic material,
while others sort out and consume the organic particles); carrion eaters
consume dead animal and plant matter; parasites are found both internally
and externally on other (larger) organisms called hosts and eat them without
directly killing them; predators kill and eat their prey.
|
Page 9
of 15
|
|
|