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Reference Terms
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herbivore

A herbivore is often defined as any organism that eats only plants. By that definition, many fungi, some bacteria, many animals, about 1% of flowering plants and some protists can be considered herbivores. Many people restrict the term herbivore to animals. Fungi, bacteria and protists that feed on living plants are usually termed plant pathogens. Microbes that feed on dead plants are saprotrophs. Flowering plants that obtain nutrition from other living plants are usually termed parasitic plants. In zoology, an herbivore is an animal that is adapted to eat primarily plant matter (rather than meat). Although such animals are sometimes referred to as being vegetarian, this term is more properly reserved for humans who choose not to eat meat as opposed to animals that are unable to make such choices.

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Plants & Animals News

June 9, 2025

For millions of years, large herbivores like mastodons and giant deer shaped the Earth's ecosystems, which astonishingly stayed stable despite extinctions and upheavals. A new study reveals that only twice in 60 million years did environmental ...
A massive global collaboration has tracked over 12,000 marine animals from whales to turtles to create one of the most detailed movement maps of ocean giants ever assembled. The project, MegaMove, ...
Frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians are not just battling habitat loss and pollution they're now also contending with increasingly brutal heat waves and droughts. A sweeping 40-year study shows a direct link between the rise in extreme weather ...
Researchers found telehealth visits can improve care for cats with feline ...
Researchers have synthesized a new compound called infuzide that shows activity against resistant strains of ...
To satisfy the seafood needs of billions of people, offering them access to a more biodiverse array of fish creates opportunities to mix-and-match species to obtain better nutrition from smaller ...
Eating a colorful variety of flavonoid-rich foods like tea, berries, dark chocolate, and apples may significantly lower your risk of chronic diseases and even help you live longer. A major study ...
Researchers asked patients, some of whom had experienced lower back pain for up to 40 years, if being in nature helped them coped better with their lower back pain. They found that people able to ...
Environmental DNA from the air, captured with simple air filters, can track everything from illegal drugs to the wildlife it was originally designed to ...
The biosynthesis of the great variety of natural plant products has not yet been elucidated for many medically interesting substances. In a new study, an international team of researchers was able to ...
As psychedelics gain traction as potential treatments for mental health disorders, an international study stands to improve the rigor and reliability of clinical ...
Researchers have discovered that baboons walk in lines, not for safety or strategy, but simply to stay close to their ...

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