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Article: Friends 4-ever: meet some of nature's strangest pairs.(life science)
- Article from:
- SuperScience
- Article date:
- February 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Hippos and birds? Frogs and flowers? Some wild animals and plants have unusual friends. These pairs of plants and animals hang out together for many important reasons. For example, they might depend on each other for food or for protection. Scientists call these partnerships symbiosis (sim-bee-OH-sis).
Not all partnerships are the same. Sometimes the partners help each other! In the ocean, many big fish get their skin and teeth cleaned by little cleaner shrimp. In exchange, the shrimp get to eat the dead skin, pests, and food scraps they find on the fish. When both partners benefit like that, it is called mutualism (MEW-chew-ul-izm).
Sometimes only one ...