Get back to basics. Simplify! The adventurous life of a Honey Badger can’t last forever. Come, dig the SOIL.

Go through the process of DECOMPOSITION.

After the badger dies it becomes food for microorganisms in the soil. Carbon moves into the soil as flesh, blood, and bones are broken down into smaller and smaller and smaller pieces by bacteria and fungi. Some of the carbon stored in the badger's body is used for energy by the microorganisms as they decompose it bit by bit. Some is left behind for others to eat.

The carbon that was originally organized into complex organic forms by plants, then used by animals, provides nutrients for microscopic organisms as they break it back down into a smorgasbord of simpler forms.

BEGIN AS: Animal Biomass. BECOME: Soil Organic Matter.

C₆H₁₂O₆ => 2 C₂H₅OH + 2 C0₂

Sugar => Ethanol + Carbon Dioxide

Complex organic molecules are broken down to simpler forms in the process of decomposition.

Learn much more with Wikipedia: Decomposition, Decomposer, Chemical_process_of_decomposition

Breathe deeply, badger. Carbon, come, soar free! Drift into the ATMOSPHERE.

Go through the process of RESPIRATION.

Respiration is the primary way that carbon leaves living bodies after being useful. Respiration is the reverse of photosynthesis! Respiration begins with oxygen and sugar, and ends with carbon dioxide, water and energy. Photosynthesis begins with carbon dioxide, water and energy, and ends with oxygen and sugar. The light energy stored in sugar form by a plant gets released as chemical energy in respiration.

As a carbon atom in a sugar, you'll be burned up for energy in the badger's muscle, joining two oxygen atoms. Next, you'll travel through the bloodstream to the lungs to be breathed out into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide.

The carbon dioxide animals breathe in from the atmosphere simply gets breathed right back out. It is not used to build bodies, nor for energy.

BEGIN AS: Animal Biomass. BECOME: Carbon Dioxide.

C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6 O₂ => 6 CO₂ + 6 H₂O + energy

Sugar + Oxygen => Carbon Dioxide + Water + Energy

Living things burn sugar to release energy in the process of respiration.

Learn much more with Wikipedia: Respiration_(physiology)

start over

You are Carbon in an Animal

What an active lifestyle. Brain, paw, protein, DNA, ... what role in life don't we play?

Carbon play many many roles in living things. Some carbon compounds are stored as sources of chemical energy, like carbohydrates; some act as the building blocks of bodies, like proteins. Within the animal, carbon exists in many complex forms in muscle, blood, bone, and brain matter. Every part, every cell contains carbon.

In bodies, carbon combines with many different chemical partners in many kinds of compounds. Hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphate, sulfur, iron and other chemicals combine with carbon in complicated and varied ways.

The human body is composed mostly of organic carbon compounds—protein, fat and carbohydrate—and water.

64% water, 20% protein, 10% fat, 1% carbohydrate, 5% minerals.

Bodies of animals are 30% carbon dry weight.

Learn much more with Wikipedia: Carbon-based_life, Herbivore

glucose, DNA, Amino Acid, ATP, a protein, an enzyme, RNA, a starch, an antigen, a carbohydrate, a hormone, a lipid, a fatty acid, a neurotransmitter, a nucleic acid, a peptide, an amino acid, a lectin, a vitamin, a fat