Yeerks are Plants

[voodooqueen126]

this is really interesting, I used to have a theory that the yeerks tasted like mushrooms, but then since mushrooms don't move or photosynthesise the yeerks are basically the opposite of mushrooms.

[yunyun]

the yeerks aren't exactly like plants, they can only suck in Kandrona when it's in the yeerk pool, and don't plants get it directly from the sun?

[Darth Revan]

Yeah, the key word in Photosynthesis is "Photo", meaning Light. The Yeerks absorb the Kandrona-enriched nutrients in the sludge, not the rays themselves.

So, would they even be considered Photosynthesic(word?) then?

If the sludge isn't necessary, then why wouldn't they just have a big ol' pool under there?

[MoppingBear]

on their home world, the kandrona rays come from their sun.

[goom]

Yeah, the key word in Photosynthesis is "Photo", meaning Light. The Yeerks absorb the Kandrona-enriched nutrients in the sludge, not the rays themselves.

It had taken a year to organize the trial. The
biggest problem was how to have the accused be
present and involved in the proceedings. There
was no way the visser could be allowed to take a
host body. I mean, how does a court order one of
the very things it considers a crime?
Fortunately Ax's people were willing to help.
Very willing. Andalite technicians created a Yeerk
box.It was about the size of a hardcover book. It
contained a miniaturized Kandrona source, a
computer-interface, and a voice synthesizer. The
visser could hear and "see" and speak. The box,
painted lavender for some obscure Andalite reason,
sat on a pedestal facing the curved judges' bench.

was it was implied that there was sludge in the box, or did the visser absorb the rays directly?

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Darth Revan]

I assumed they would've let him swim in the sludge. They would've simulated a Yeerk Pool the best they could.

A bit off topic here, sorry, but Yeerks would be the easiest race to imprison. You could just put 'em in a ziploc of sludge, and they'd be securely contained.

Alas back to the topic:

Yeah, I think it's safe to say that they couldn't be quantified by human terms, or catalogued in any of our "Animal Kingdoms".

[Snakie]

There are plenty of organisms on earth that derive energy from the sun that are not considered plants.

Anyone ever heard of a euglena?

[TobiasMasonPark]

     We get Vitamins from the sun's light, don't we?

[Darth Revan]

So you're saying that Yeerks are Protozoa? They're like bacteria?

Remember though, they didn't absorb the rays directly, they absorbed the Kandrona enriched nutrients in the Yeerk pool sludge-stuff.

[Snakie]

So you're saying that Yeerks are Protozoa? They're like bacteria?

Remember though, they didn't absorb the rays directly, they absorbed the Kandrona enriched nutrients in the Yeerk pool sludge-stuff.

No, just saying deriving energy from light directly doesn't necessarily make something a plant.  I was just humoring the argument.  The explanations we got about kandrona rays are entirely unscientific anyway, so it seems silly to try to argue them in those terms.

As others have mentioned, they weren't exactly getting energy from the rays anyway.  Despite this, it seems like they did need the rays directly, they couldn't just bathe in things that had been exposed to the rays and survive.

Then again, the need for kandrona rays could also be eliminated by instant maple flavored oatmeal (at the cost of sanity), so that seems to fly in the face of them being photosynthetic anyhow.

Like I said, totally unscientific.

[RYTX]

Now I'm about to make an a$$ of myself, but I'm still gonna do this because I'd like to see the response.

Yeerks are not plants. Yeerks are not animals. This is all conditional on one unproven condition I'll get at later, but if it is correct, Yeerks are not either of these, and-because I know them better-I'm going to use animals to try and show why.

Definition of animal, obtained from merriam-webster.com :
any of a kingdom (Animalia) of living things including many-celled organisms and often many of the single-celled ones (as protozoans) that typically differ from plants in having cells without cellulose walls, in lacking chlorophyll and the capacity for photosynthesis, in requiring more complex food materials (as proteins), in being organized to a greater degree of complexity, and in having the capacity for spontaneous movement and rapid motor responses to stimulation

What's important here is that kingdom Animalia part; the rest refer to characteristics that are generally used in the common notion of describing animals (e.g. complexity is a relative term, and sponges aren't exceeding rapid at most things).
Animalia is an evolutionary group: the things descended from an ancestral organism. It's not whatever traits they do or don't have that places them in the group-that truly make them "animals"-it's a more of a heritage thing.
Point is, since Yeerks are alien, they are not a part of this group-no relatedness to any of Earths creatures, animals or plants, no matter how they are alike.
Same goes for the other aliens.
I think of it easiest with the Leerans: They are amphibians-they live on water and land.
They are not Amphibia (like frogs and newts and such) because they are not an evolutionary relation to the Amphibia of Earth. And unless you are a taxonomist, you say amphibian to refer to Amphibia.

All of this rest on the condition that no one went around planting things from one world on another: a condition unproven and slightly ruptured by the Pemalites. But there's no direct evidence that the anything had a hand in generating any of the intelligent life forms we see in the series in this manner e.g. no skrit na took a frog, dumped it on a new planet, and then got Leerans.
*Except the Iskoort and (arguably) Garatrons (possible Andalite kin)
Assuming this is true, whether or not Yeerks photosynthesize, or have cell walls, or anything else that is plant-like, they are not, in the biological since plants. Nor are they animals
They are aliens, evolved and much more interestingly (imo) arisen independently of life on all other worlds-their commonalities with others superficial and coincidental.

Fascinating sure, but a real mark on the limits of human imagination that any other life inescapably resembles the Earth scheme of plant, animal, and the occasional germs and fungi.