filter feeder

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Related to filter feeder: Deposit feeder

filter feeder

Any of various aquatic animals, such as clams, sponges, and certain whales, that feed by filtering small organisms or organic particles from water.

fil′ter feed`er

any aquatic animal, as a sponge or clam, that feeds by straining food particles and small organisms from the water.

filter feeder

An aquatic animal, such as a clam or sponge, that feeds by filtering tiny organisms or fine particles of organic material from currents of water that pass through it.

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References in periodicals archive ?

Some ctenochasmid pterosaurs are thought to have been filter feeders. Pterodaustro, which comes from the Cretaceous and is thus slightly younger than the Polish coprolites, possessed a sieving basket consisting of many long, thin teeth and was certainly a filter feeder.

UPPSALA UNIVERSITY: Filter-feeding pterosaurs were the flamingoes of the Late Jurassic

Sometimes life is unfair, and we have to suck it up, like a filter feeder! Thankfully, Papa understands the kids' grief, and gets them a cat.

Introducing: The Greatest Children's Book Ever Written About Gefilte Fish

"The red tide causing organism (pysidinium bahamensi) lies dormant in the sea bottom waiting for favorable conditions to bloom (multiply) and when eaten by filter feeder organisms like shellfish will accumulate in their guts (stomach).

Bohol poisoning spurs Cebu shellfish scare

Paddlefish: Another filter feeder, these prehistoric fish are unmistakable.

Head to Big Waters for Bigger Fish and Big Adventure

With a wingspan of at least five metres, it was an impressive, indeed intimidating, sight and as I slowly swam towards it to get a better look, I kept calm by repeatedly telling myself, 'It's a filter feeder, it's filter feeder ...'

Magnificent mantas

Found in waters around Australia, Cocos Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, New Caledonia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vietnam, the giant southern clam is mainly a filter feeder.

Giant clams are saved from the cooking pot

Trophic groups used in this study were surface-deposit feeder (SDF), subsurface-deposit feeder (SSDF), filter feeder (FF), grazer (GR), omnivore (O), and carnivore (C).

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

As the endangered whale shark is a filter feeder, it does not eat other fish and makes an excellent tourist attraction for the aquarium.

Feeling blue

volutator was 17,000 individuals [m.sup.-2] in the shallow Odense Fjord (Denmark), the area-specific population filtration rate was estimated to be nearly 20 [m.sup.3] [m.sup.-2] [d.sup.-1], which suggests that the filter-feeding activity of this amphipod may be important in shallow water areas that have dense populations of this hitherto underrated facultative filter feeder.

Biomechanics and energy cost of the amphipod Corophium volutator filter-pump

japonica, also a filter feeder. In our preliminary analyses, we could not find a better model when we used different values of [s.sub.max] in Equation 6 between ages instead of categorical variables indicating ages.

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

However, the shape of the long, slender, toothless snout suggests the animal wasn't a filter feeder either.

Sea dragons: big news about ichthyosaurs, which cruised ancient oceans while dinosaurs ruled the land

Filter feeder found in cool to very cold waters; cold hard-bottom streams; rarely lakes; WA, OR, W.