Say What? Microbes

Osmotroph

OZ-moh-trofe n.

BALANCING ACT  Early multicellular organisms that relied on nutrients diffusing into their bodies to eat may have been precursors to animals.

Marc Laflamme

By Paul Gabrielsen

- More than 2 years ago

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An organism that eats by osmosis, relying on nutrients diffusing into its body from a higher concentration in its environment.

About 550 million years ago, ambitious aquatic fronds began growing taller and tapped into more nutrient-rich water than found at the seafloor surface.