APEX PREDATOR
Updated 05-May-2020.
Mondo shtuff from around the internet, all about APEX PREDATOR!
Bring on a few more apex predators: Rewilding Britain and bringing back its wolves, lynx and bears, would be wondrous
Neovenatorid theropods are apex predators in the Late Cretaceous of North America: Allosauroid theropods were a diverse and widespread radiation of Jurassic-Cretaceous megapredators. Achieving some of the largest body sizes among theropod dinosaurs, these colossal hunters dominated terrestrial ecosystems until a faunal turnover redefined apex predator guild occupancy during the final 20 million years of the Cretaceous. Here we describe a giant new species of allosauroid – Siats meekerorum gen. et sp. nov. – providing the first evidence for the cosmopolitan clade Neovenatoridae in North America. Siats is the youngest allosauroid yet discovered from the continent and demonstrates that the clade endured there into the Late Cretaceous. The discovery provides new evidence for ecologic sympatry of large allosauroids and small-bodied tyrannosauroids. These data support the hypothesis that extinction of Allosauroidea in terrestrial ecosystems of North America permitted ecological release of tyrannosauroids, which went on to dominate end-Cretaceous food webs.
Ecosystem context and historical contingency in apex predator recoveries
Eating up the world’s food web and the human trophic level: Trophic levels are critical for synthesizing species’ diets, depicting energy pathways, understanding food web dynamics and ecosystem functioning, and monitoring ecosystem health. Specifically, trophic levels describe the position of species in a food web, from primary producers to apex predators (range, 1-5). Small differences in trophic level can reflect large differences in diet. Although trophic levels are among the most basic information collected for animals in ecosystems, a human trophic level (HTL) has never been defined. Here, we find a global HTL of 2.21, i.e., the trophic level of anchoveta. This value has increased with time, consistent with the global trend toward diets higher in meat. National HTLs ranging between 2.04 and 2.57 reflect a broad diversity of diet, although cluster analysis of countries with similar dietary trends reveals only five major groups. We find significant links between socio-economic and environmental indicators and global dietary trends. We demonstrate that the HTL is a synthetic index to monitor human diets and provides a baseline to compare diets between countries.
My botty best at summarizing from Wikipedia: an apex predator, also known as an alpha predator or top predator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators . wolves prey mostly upon large herbivores humans have started interacting with apex predators in new ways . ecotourism and rewilding efforts have helped reintroduce lynx . badger predates on and competes with hedge removal of badgers caused hedgehog densities to more than double . humans not considered apex predators because diets are typically diverse . human trophic levels increase with consumption of meat . removal of top-level predators can cause or disrupt trophic cascades . reduction in population of sperm whales has caused increase in large squid population . mesopredator release occurs in climate change is shrinking the sea ice of the Arctic, forcing polar bears to fast on land for increasingly long periods . dramatic changes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem were recorded after the gray wolf was reintro the grizzly bear gives birth during hibernation, so increased food supply is expected to produce an increase in cubs observed . dozens of other species, including eagles, ravens, Roopnarine instead calculated the position of humans in two marine ecosystems . a Caribbean coral reef and the Benguela system near south africa . extinct species cannot be directly determined to be apex predators allosaurus and tyrannosaurus described as apex predators based on size, morphology, and dietary needs . sabre-tooth cats, like Smilo tour operators may intervene in ecosystems by providing food to attract predators . provisioning of species such as the tiger shark is controversial . other affected apex predators include big cats and crocodile plans made to reintroduce lynx to the counties of Norfolk, Cumbria, and northumberland . conservationists propose instead to allow wolves and bears to hunt their prey on large