Question

Which of the following shows the correct order in a food chain?
A. Plant → bird → caterpillar
B. Caterpillar → plant → bird
C. Plant → caterpillar → bird
D. Bird → caterpillar → plant

Answer 1

The order of any food chain seems like this: sun (or light energy), primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumer and tertiary consumers. At the highest of the system are the apex predators: animals who haven't any predators aside from humans.

Complete answer: Food chain refers to the sequence of events in an ecosystem, where one organism eats another organism. It starts with producers, i.e. plants that make their own food via photosynthesis, continues with consumers or animals who eat producers; especially herbivores, and ends with the highest predator. Among the given options the right order would plant (producers), caterpillar (primary consumer), followed by a bird (secondary consumer). In a food chain, at each trophic level, only 10 percent of the energy is transferred, while the remaining 90 percent is lost in the form of heat. It is popularly known as the 10th percent law. Microbes occupy the top level in a food chain. They act as decomposers, i.e. they feed on the dead and decaying organisms. Producers such as plants utilize chemical energy along with water and carbon dioxide to prepare glucose. Primary, secondary and tertiary consumers are heterotrophs, i.e. they can not manufacture their own food like producers, therefore, they depend on other organisms for nutrition.
Hence, the correct answer is option C.

Note: Food chains were first introduced by the Arab scientist and philosopher Al-Jahiz in the 10th century and later popularized in a book published in 1927 by Charles Elton, which also introduced the food web concept.