filter feeder

[′fil·tər ‚fēd·ər]

(invertebrate zoology)

A microphagous organism that uses complex filtering mechanisms to trap particles suspended in water.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Filter Feeder

an aquatic animal that feeds on minute planktonic organisms or suspended particles, which it filters from the water. Active filter feeders, including many crustaceans, tunicates, and whalebone whales, draw water through external or internal filtration organs by moving their cilia or extremities or contracting their muscles. Passive filter feeders make use of water currents. For example, sea lillies have branches with numerous feathery outgrowths, which they spread in the direction of the current, creating a complex, immobile filtration network. Filter feeders often combine suspension feeding with deposit feeding. Filter feeders include many marine and freshwater species. Some species, for example, marine mussels, play an important role in purifying sea water of slime in coastal regions.

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References in periodicals archive

The filter feeders dominated along with deposit feeders during the Post M.

Environmental gradient favours functionally diverse macrobenthic community in a placer rich tropical bay

This model is useful in elucidating relationships between environmental factors and growth of filter feeders from field data.

An environmentally based growth model that uses finite difference calculus with maximum likelihood method: its application to the brackish water bivalve Corbicula japonica in Lake Abashiri, Japan

Mostly a filter feeder; occurs in cool to cold water, in larger permanent streams; overall range SW WA, E.

AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST OF IDAHO LAND AND FRESHWATER MOLLUSKS

Similarly, Buss (1979) argued that for sessile filter feeders, access to food depends, in part, on access to space.

Relative strengths of competition for space and food in a sessile filter feeder

Harrimania planktophilus is a facultative filter feeder, and a detailed comparison between a wide range of hemichordates will undoubtedly reveal further evolutionary innovations of the branchial pharynx.

Particle retention and flow in the pharynx of the enteropneust worm Harrimania planktophilus: the filter-feeding pharynx may have evolved before the chordates

Russell suspects that all of the toothless ornithomimids may have been filter feeders, foreshadowing a feeding strategy employed by a wide variety of modern aquatic birds.

New fossil sheds light on dinosaurs' diet

The whale shark is a filter feeder which consumes plankton which they scoop up in their gaping mouths while swimming close to the water's surface.

Whale shark makes short stopover in Abu Dhabi

As filter feeders, shellfish absorb the toxins generated by red tide, or the high concentration of algal bloom.

3 towns in Pangasinan, Davao Occidental now red tide-free

They are Ireland's longest living animal - reaching up to 140 years - and as filter feeders they can help maintain and improve water quality.

Musseling in on [euro]10million sea scheme

They are filter feeders. They eat plankton - such as krill and fish eggs - small nektonic life - including small squid or fish - and phytoplankton - such as algae and other marine plant material.

Whale sharks spotted off Preah Sihanouk islands

"They are filter feeders, eating plankton and aren't lurking waiting to eat you for lunch."

Public warned to 'stay away' after huge shark washes up on UK beach; The six metre shark - which is now being examined by experts - poses a risk to people and other animals as it begins to decompose