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Are there any known examples of animal life that don't depend on consuming other life (plant or animal)? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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There's herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores, but is there any category of animal life that can sustain itself on anything else that isn't related to living organisms?

Is the only known example of this at the moment basically...Plants, give or take the particular species & how one may interpret the question of relation to other life?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

However, the giant tube worms found near hydrothermal vents are animals that sustain themselves by hosting a symbiotic colony of such microorganisms.

That's wicked! This is rekindling my interest in microbiology that I'd almost forgotten. Also this is probably the closest example of what I was wondering about if I understand this right, in the usual unexpected way that biology begets.