Organism-substrate relations; toward a logical terminology
Sally E. Walker, William L. Miller · Palaios · 1992
Organisms that live on or beneath the seafloor, or an object connected to the seafloor, should be referred to as benthic (not benthonic). Bottom dwellers can be divided into epibenthic or endobenthic, depending on whether they spend most of their lives or deploy the majority of their bodies above or below the substrate, respectively. Terms like epifauna and infauna should be avoided because they suggest organisms living on/within other «host» organisms, which is not the usual meaning. A few subdivisions of these categories are useful; more could be recognized as needed, but it is advisable to keep ther terminology as simple as possible. for instance, endobenthic organisms can be divided into the following overlapping subcategories : endosedimentary (organisms living within granular substrates, such as soupy mud, firm sand, or loose graved); endolithic (endobenthos of firm or hard mostly inorganic substrates, such as submarine hardgrounds)