- What are omnivorous animals?
- Characteristics of omnivorous animals
- Examples of omnivorous animals
- The human being
- Carnivorous animals
- Herbivorous animals
We explain what omnivorous animals are, what their characteristics are, the case of humans and other examples.
What are omnivorous animals?
The omnivorous animals (from the Latin omni, "everything and I'll vorare, "Eat") are those heterotrophic organisms who have a flexible diet, that is, not specialized. This means that they can feed on various sources of organic material, either vegetable (like herbivores) or animal (like carnivores), without too much distinction.
In fact, omnivores tend to feed on what is available at the time, so their diets can be really diversified. They are opportunistic and general eaters, who may well play the role of predator, from scavenger or from consumer vegetarian.
However, they should not be confused with cases of adaptation in which some herbivores may eventually eat meat, or some carnivores eat plants. Omnivores are able to switch between one diet and another with full consciousness and will.
Characteristics of omnivorous animals
Unlike carnivores, physically and biochemically adapted to obtaining and digesting meat, or herbivores, adapted to a vegetarian diet, omnivores do not present very particular adaptations.
They retain a non-specific biological profile, capable of feeding on plant leaves, insects or red meat from a prey more or less equally. Consequently, in many cases they have mixed dentures, equipped with different teeth capable of tearing, crushing or cutting, as is the case of the human denture.
On the other hand, their digestive systems fall somewhere between the straightforward simplicity of carnivores and the delayed complexity of herbivores. In other words, they can only partially digest the most complex and difficult plant matter, which is usually directly expelled as waste.
Examples of omnivorous animals
When looking for examples of omnivorous animals, the human being is the most obvious case. There are people who want to eat only vegetables, others only meat, and the vast majority who seek to balance their food going to various sources, which in some cases even includes insects.
However, we can also list most bears, pigs, crows, raccoons, mice and rats, dogs, possums, certain turtles, crabs, hedgehogs, skunks, fish such as piranhas, or reptiles clade Lacertilia.
The human being
The human beingIn its complexity, it is probably the simplest example of an omnivorous animal. Their teeth are complex and mixed, their digestive system It is much more complex than that of a strict carnivore, but much simpler than that of a herbivore, and it is capable of nourishing itself from different food sources, from fruits, seeds, insects, meats, vegetables, roots, etc.
There is a debate as to whether we always eat that way or whether our species learned to be omnivorous during its evolutionary history. It is known that our probable ancestors were omnivores as well, and that many apes with which we are related tend to be, or herbivores with occasional tendencies towards the consumption of insects or other meats.
Even so, the consumption of meat (and the invention of fire to digest it better) is considered a fundamental milestone in our evolutionary history, since it would have given us a supplement of calories indispensable for the formation of more complex brains.
However, a diet rich in meat (especially red) has been shown to be detrimental to our metabolism, unable to deal with so many fats saturated without suffering the consequences. The debate, therefore, continues.
Carnivorous animals
Carnivorous animals are specialized consumers, obtaining their organic matter from the body of others. animals mostly. This means that they are either predators or scavengers.
They have sharp teeth to tear the meat, as well as claws, pincers, poisons or other mechanisms of competence to capture their prey and ensure the feeding. It is possible, however, that some carnivores supplement their diet with other types of food.
Examples of carnivorous animals are the Lion, the hyena, the vulture, the condor, the pelican or the tiger.
Herbivorous animals
Herbivores, like cows, have much more complex digestive systems.Herbivores are the opposite side of the coin from carnivores. They are also consumers but on an exclusively vegetarian diet, that is, they feed on organic matter of origin vegetable: leaves, stems, shoots, seeds, fruits, roots, barks, etc.
For this reason they have specialized dentures to grind plant fibers and long and complex digestive systems of many stomachs, which allow breaking down cellulose and obtaining nutrients. This is the case of ruminants, who return and chew the food again until its best possible digestion is guaranteed.
Examples of herbivorous animals are cow, deer, giraffe, and aphids.