A mushroom and a goat both feed on plants…
Contributed by StemPy LabTry it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A mushroom and a goat both feed on plants. Compare where each digests its food, and explain why a mushroom must release its juices onto its food.
Need a reminder? The key ideaShow
Holozoic: whole food taken in and digested inside. Saprophytic: food digested outside the body on dead matter, then absorbed. Parasitic: food taken from a living host. Amoeba traps food in a food vacuole with pseudopodia; Paramecium sweeps it into a fixed groove with cilia.
The worked solution
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. The goat. It takes the whole food in, and digests it inside its alimentary canal: holozoic nutrition.
Step 2. The mushroom. It has no mouth and cannot take in pieces of food. Its threads release digestive juices onto dead plant matter, outside the body.
Step 3. Why outside. Only small, dissolved molecules can pass into its cells. So the food must be broken down first, outside, and then absorbed.
Answer: The goat digests inside its body; the mushroom digests outside and then absorbs, because only small molecules can enter its cells.
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