How did the first living organisms eat: types of food, features

Every living organism that lives on our planet is an open system. Its functioning depends on how the substances necessary for life activity come from the external environment. Information on how to eat the first living organisms, as well as the types of food you will find below. There are several types of implementation of this process.

Feeding of living organisms

In order for the elementary biological system to exist and function, to build a body, it needs certain elements. The process by which energy and substances are consumed is commonly called nutrition.

Types of food

Scientists distinguish the following types of nutrition of living organisms - heterotrophic and autotrophic. At the same time, an autotroph is called an organism, for which the carbon source is directly carbon dioxide. They include some species of bacteria, as well as plants. Such an organism can create substances of an organic type, consuming inorganic substances.

Autotrophs, in turn, are usually divided into hemotrophs and photoautotrophs. The latter are organisms that use the energy of light to carry out a process called biosynthesis. The first option involves using for it the energy of oxidative reactions of compounds of inorganic origin.

Heterotrophs are called living organisms, for which substances of organic origin are needed in ready-made form. They include many species of bacteria, all fungi and animals. These are all mammals, in particular.

Depending on the method of obtaining useful substances, scientists also divide heterotrophs into two types. This organism is a phagotroph, which swallows solid food, as well as an examination that absorbs useful components in the form of a solution from the walls of cells.

Among the heterotrophs there is a type of organisms called saprotroph. There is also another, which should be called biotroph. For the latter, the source of food is a living organism. If we talk about saprotrophs, they use nutrients of organic origin from the dead or excreta of living creatures (for animals). This includes some species of fungi, bacteria, plants, animals. There are also organisms-mixotrophs, which feed on both ready-made organic substances and are able to create from inorganic substances.

How did the first living organisms eat: the opinion of scientists

Scientists at the present stage have not yet come to a single conclusion about how the first creatures lived on the planet. This also applies to how the first living organisms ate. But almost all scientists recognize the fact that as food they used substances of inorganic origin that appeared as a result of abiogenic reactions. This could be the effect of sun rays, a thunderstorm discharge or heat, which is given off by geysers, etc. Thus, how the first living organisms ate, and is now the subject of discussions among scientists.