Filter feeder
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Filter feeders (also known as suspension feeders) are animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized structure, such as the baleen of baleen whales.
Filter feeding is one of the four major types of feeding. Some animals that use this method of feeding are clams, krill, flamingos, and sponges.
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Filter feeding in krill
Krill_filter_feeding.jpg
The Antarctic krill manages to directly utilize the minute phytoplankton cells, which no other higher animal of krill size can do. This is accomplished through filter feeding, using the krill's developed front legs, providing for a very efficient filtering apparatusTemplate:Mn: the six thoracopods form a very effective "feeding basket" used to collect phytoplankton from the open water. In the movie linked to the right, the krill is hovering at a 55° angle on the spot. In lower food concentrations, the feeding basket is pushed through the water for over half a meter in an opened position, and then the algae are combed to the mouth opening with special setae on the inner side of the thoracopods.
Details of the feeding basket
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Filter feeding in Moon Jelly
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References
Template:Mnb2 Kils, U.: Swimming and feeding of Antarctic Krill, Euphausia superba - some outstanding energetics and dynamics - some unique morphological details (http://wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Uwe_Kils/polar/part1). In Berichte zur Polarforschung, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Special Issue 4 (1983): "On the biology of Krill Euphausia superba", Proceedings of the Seminar and Report of Krill Ecology Group, Editor S. B. Schnack, 130-155 and title page image.