Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The eating of non-living organic material.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From sapro- + -phagy.

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Examples

  • The ancestral shift in feeding habits from saprophagy to coprophagy in the Scarabaeoidea probably coincided with the appearance of large terrestrial herbivores, particularly grazing Mesozoic reptiles and subsequently mammals

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Jos? R. Verd? et al. 2010

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