MediumBiologyHigh School (11–12)Diversity of Living Organisms › Kingdoms Plantae and AnimaliaConceptual
A goat chews grass and digests it inside its stomach.
Contributed by StemPy LabTry it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A goat chews grass and digests it inside its stomach. What is this kind of nutrition called? How is it different from the way a mushroom feeds, and from the way the grass makes its food?
Need a reminder? The key ideaShow
Plantae: eukaryotes with chlorophyll, cell walls of cellulose, mostly autotrophic (a few partly heterotrophic: insectivorous plants and Cuscuta), and a life cycle that alternates a diploid sporophyte () and a haploid gametophyte (). Animalia: many-celled heterotrophs with no cell wall, holozoic nutrition (food taken in and digested inside), reserve food as glycogen or fat, and mostly sexual reproduction. A fungus has a mycelium of hyphae: septate (with cross walls) or coenocytic (no cross walls, many nuclei). The wall is of chitin and polysaccharides. Fungi are saprophytes, parasites or symbionts (lichens, mycorrhiza). Sexual reproduction: plasmogamy (two cells fuse, ), karyogamy (the nuclei fuse, ), then meiosis (haploid spores, ).
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 in food and digests it in an internal cavity: holozoic nutrition.
Step 2. The mushroom. It does not eat. It absorbs soluble organic matter from dead material through its hyphae: a saprophyte.
Step 3. The grass. It makes its own food by photosynthesis: it is autotrophic.
Answer: holozoic; a fungus absorbs dissolved food, and a plant makes its own.
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