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Post by theropod on Jul 22, 2014 22:56:34 GMT 5
This is a place to post and discuss accounts and general information on the largest/most dangerous prey items taken by specific predator, e.g. big cat predation on elephants, shark predation on whales etc. These can also be supplemented with general information on the predator’s diet if it seems in order.
Here’s an account of a young Loxodonta cyclotis killed by a leopard with a bite to the chest (!): Blake 2007→However, I don’t know how large an 8-10 month-old forest elephant is. |
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Post by Grey on Jul 22, 2014 23:05:35 GMT 5
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Post by Runic on Jul 24, 2014 0:48:02 GMT 5
Rhinos and primates
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Post by theropod on Jul 24, 2014 1:33:39 GMT 5
Are you implying that rhinos (which rhinos?) prey on primates, or that primates (which primates?) prey on rhinos (I take it that you can’t mean humans, because humans have also preyed on whales and elephants, which are both considerably larger than any rhino). Both sound rather unlikely  . In general could you please post a source, an account, an image, anything? |
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Post by Runic on Jul 24, 2014 1:46:28 GMT 5
Are you implying that rhinos (which rhinos?) prey on primates, or that primates (which primates?) prey on rhinos (I take it that you can’t mean humans, because humans have also preyed on whales and elephants, which are both considerably larger than any rhino). Both sound rather unlikely . In general could you please post a source, an account, an image, anything? Oh shit my bad theropod I read the title wrong. I thought it said "most dangerous prey item" in general not that a predator has taken lol. I'll get to it then! |
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LeopJag
Member
Panthera kryptikos (cryptic, evasive panther)
Posts: 440
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Post by LeopJag on Jul 24, 2014 8:33:22 GMT 5
I thought that you were pulling our legs at first xD!
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Post by creature386 on Aug 11, 2014 14:58:01 GMT 5
According to The Dinosauria (before you ask, this was when talking about carnosaurs and taking an analogy) FKWs flesh graze sperm whales. Don't know if this counts as hunting, but theropod listed sharks and whales, so why not?
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Post by theropod on Apr 14, 2015 19:54:30 GMT 5
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Post by Ceratodromeus on Apr 27, 2015 22:48:32 GMT 5
Rubber boa predation on a chipmunk:  not impress at first glance, however once you take into consideration these snakes almost entirely feed on fledgling birds and young rodents, it is indeed impressive(and the only instance i've ever found of this occuring) Short but sweet accounts of nile crocodile predation on larger herbivores Reference: Pienar UP (1969) Predator-prey relationships among the larger mammals of the Kruger National Park. Koedoe 12:108–176 |
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Creeper
Junior Member Rank 1
Posts: 39
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Post by Creeper on Apr 28, 2015 19:21:35 GMT 5
Bullfrogs eat some pretty impressive things for their size.
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Post by Ceratodromeus on May 13, 2015 2:08:59 GMT 5
I've always thought predation on ungulates by the larger constricting snakes to always be very impressive.  also predation on felids and the larger cats, although sometimes vague, has always struck me as impressive as well. |
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Post by Venomous Dragon on May 13, 2015 3:09:56 GMT 5
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Post by Grey on May 21, 2015 22:29:53 GMT 5
So far what is the biggest prey item (in absolute term, not proportionnally) attacked by a single predator that we have evidence for in the fossil records ?
For having focused on the megatooth sharks, I'm thinking about Alton Dooley's 9m cetotherid attacked and killed by a megalodon, studied by Kent but the manuscript was never published, and the Pliocene rorqual-sized whale bitten by probably a small megalodon, although it didn't succumb.
Are there other examples ?
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Post by theropod on May 21, 2015 23:51:45 GMT 5
The rorqual must have been really big (compared to a humpback or blue whale by Kallal et al., even though that isn’t very specific). However, what standards do we set to determine whether an attack was carried out by a single predator, and what standards to ascertain that it was actually predation?
There’s always the problem of differentiating between fossil signs of post-mortem scavenging and fatal injuries, as well as between solitary and gregarious predation, there’s no conclusive way to know which is which.
I can think of bite-marked sauropods that rival or exceed the size of that cetothere, but it can be (and has been) argued that these could have been the result of scavenging (the problem, obviously, is that whether the sauropod was initially killed by a theropod or not, it would bear the subsequent marks of scavenging, and it’s hard to say which are which). The same can of course be argued for the whale. That nonwithstanding, I have little doubt that predation events like these did occur, proven or not. But in most cases, unhealed bite traces could very well be either scavenging or attack marks.
The rorqual was definitely attacked while alive (and it seems like it might be the biggest fossil organism in which we have evidence for conflict-induced pathologies), but naturally we can only get such confirmation in cases of failed or otherwise non-lethal attacks, which would include the types of behaviour commonly referred to as "meat-grazing". Also, we have absolutely no clue whether this was an attack by a single shark.
Something else that springs to my mind would be the chase sequence from the Paluxy tracksite, but the problems here are obvious.
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Post by Grey on May 22, 2015 7:55:57 GMT 5
I think we can consider these two cases as confirmed examples of predation.
Alton Dooley's whale is considered as a certain predation event by Kent (see his chapter and Hell's teeth article).
I had contacted Godfrey and he said the Pliocene rorqual that was bitten by presumably a smaller shark, quite possibly a young meg, was fin whale-sized.
But let's exclude this case, as this represents a failed attempt (or maybe grazing-feeding ?).
Regarding Dooley's whale, we have a quite clear example of a whale ~9m long that was attacked and killed (in a brutal way) by a megalodon.
What are the other cases where an even bigger prey item was killed by a single predator (in marine environment) ?
Among theropods, what are the examples where a larger prey was a confirmed kill by a single large predator ?
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