Lysianassoid amphipods can mostly be distinguished from other amphipods by their “telescope-like” antennae: a very fat inner article with the two next looking like a collapsed old fashioned radio-antenna two short rings. Are these as little loved in our world as the rats and vultures seem to be?Ī typical lysianassoid amphipod. Let us look at the scavenging Lysianassoid amphipods. Many of the marine scavengers are invertebrates (even if some fishes also scavenge). How about the scavengers of the sea? As on land, we have many different animal-groups that can be classified as scavengers. Vultures are not the most popular birds, even the word “vulture” has a negative connotation – and we mainly use it in its non-bird meaning. Is it different with the scavengers we dont see so often? It does not seem that way. And that gets us to the sloppy eaters out there, and not least the animals picking up after all the sloppy eaters.įrom the pigeons crowding under your cafe-table for your panini-crumbs to the rats in our sewers, our “local scavengers” tend to be animals we feel slightly uncomfortable around. That can be translated to “where there is a food-source (or a place to live) someone or something will use that food-source (or place to live).

One of the laws of ecology is that “there is no such thing as an empty ecological niche”. This allows for others to pick up where others leave. They have their favourite piece of food that they go for, and then they leave the rest. Lysianassoid amphipods from a trap in Raudfjorden, Svalbard.

The scavengers