Chemoheterotroph

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An organism that gets its energy from breaking down chemical compounds and obtains its carbon from organic molecules produced by other living things
2. A living thing that draws energy from chemical reactions while depending on ready-made organic matter as its source of carbon
3. Any microbe or creature that metabolizes chemical substances for power and feeds on carbon-containing organic material made by others

Etymology: Chemoheterotroph is a technical coinage built from two existing scientific roots, with no folk history or famous coiner behind it. "Chemo-" comes from Greek "khemeia," the old word for the study of substances and their transformations, which gave modern chemistry its name. The "heterotroph" half is itself a compound: "hetero-" (from Greek "heteros," meaning "other" or "different") and "-troph" (from Greek "trophe," meaning "nourishment"). A heterotroph is an organism that cannot make its own food from sunlight or inorganic matter and must obtain carbon from other living or dead things. Put together, the word describes an organism that gets its energy from chemical compounds rather than light, and that also takes its carbon from organic sources. Animals, fungi, and most bacteria fall into this group, which is why the term is used in microbiology and ecology to distinguish these organisms from photosynthesizers like plants and cyanobacteria.