Baleen whale modern mysticetes are obligate filter feeders, using their baleen to strain small prey items (including small fish, krill, copepods, and zooplankton) from seawater. Despite their carnivorous diet, a 2015 study revealed they house gut flora similar to that of terrestrial herbivores. Different kinds of prey are found in different abundances depending on location, and each type of whale is adapted to a specialized way of foraging. There are two types of feeding behaviors: skim-feeding and lunge-feeding, but some species do both depending on the type and amount of food. Lunge-feeders feed primarily on euphausiids (krill), though some smaller lunge feeders
Filter feeder crabs have feeding appendages covered with setae to filter food particles from the flowing water. Most species of barnacles are filter feeders, using their highly modified legs to sift plankton from the water. The baleen whales (Mysticeti), one of two suborders of the Cetacea (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), are characterized by having baleen plates for filtering food from water, rather than teeth. This distinguishes them from the other suborder of cetaceans, the toothed whales (Odontoceti). The suborder contains four families and fourteen species. Baleen whales typically seek out a concentration of zooplakton, swim through it, either open-mouthed or gulping, and