All articles tagged with #predation
A newly identified spider species, Pikelinia floydmuraria, about 3–4 mm long, lives in urban wall crevices in southern Brazil and can capture prey up to six times its size, often near artificial lights that attract insects like mosquitoes and flies; described in Zoosystematics and Evolution, the discovery sheds light on the ecology of the Pikelinia genus, with DNA studies needed to clarify its evolutionary relationships.
Researchers found spherical, ball-like skeletal arrangements in 80-million-year-old crinoid fossils (Marsupites testudinarius and Uintacrinus socialis) that resemble buckminsterfullerene structures, suggesting these shapes helped with protection and buoyancy in predator-rich ancient oceans. The design appears across wide fossil deposits but vanished in later species, leaving scientists with questions about why the form disappeared.
A Science study using Digital Fossil Mining reveals Nanaimoteuthis haggarti giant octopuses, potentially up to 19 meters, as apex predators in the Late Cretaceous, with beaks found in rocks and wear patterns on jaws suggesting hard-shell/bone crushing and possibly advanced cognition, indicating invertebrates shared top-predator status with mosasaurs and other marine reptiles.
South Korean researchers describe a 106-million-year-old scene from fossil footprints showing a large pterosaur (likely a neoazhdarchian) moving on all fours to pursue a small prey animal, possibly a salamander or lizard. The trace suggests a terrestrial stalking event and a possible predation encounter, with the fossilized signatures leading to a new ichnogenus and species, Jinjuichnus procerus, though definitive predation cannot be proven.
Scientists in Uganda used camera traps at Python Cave to document 14 predators—leopards, blue monkeys, eagles and more—preying on about 40,000 Egyptian fruit bats that roost there, a known Marburg virus reservoir. The footage, published in Current Biology, shows unprecedented predation behaviors and could help explain how filoviruses spill over between species and how some animals might resist infection, while also highlighting human exposure risks near the roost and calling for stricter bat ecotourism rules.
Driver ants form nomadic colonies that can exceed a million workers and hunt almost continuously because they cannot store food; raiding parties are led by soldiers with oversized heads and scissor-like mandibles that dismantle prey from insects to small vertebrates, and their aggressive foraging can even threaten humans.
Paleontologists describe a nearly complete Edmontosaurus skull with a Tyrannosaurus tooth embedded in its snout and bite marks suggesting a fatal, close-range encounter. CT analysis indicates the tooth broke off during the attack, with the Edmontosaurus unlikely to survive; size estimates point to an adult T. rex with about a 1-meter-long skull. The find provides rare direct fossil evidence of predation and feeding behavior in large theropods, showing T. rex likely hunted and scavenged during its life.
Researchers in Italy captured on video the first-known instance of a red fox entering a wolf den, grabbing a wolf pup and likely killing it—an opportunistic attack that shows mesocarnivores can directly affect an apex predator’s reproductive success; the incident occurred while adult wolves were away hunting, and the den was later relocated, though it’s unclear how common such interactions are.
Live Science reports two washed-up orca dorsal fins from southern resident orcas found on Russia’s Bering Island, each bearing distinctive killer-whale tooth marks. Genetic testing links the fins to southern residents, while researchers say mammal-eating Bigg’s killer whales may have preyed on them, suggesting occasional cannibalism. The study posits that predation pressure by Bigg’s could help explain why resident, fish-eating orcas form large, protective family groups, though some scientists urge caution and note scavenging or other explanations could account for the marks.
The study shows that oyster recruit survival is maximized not just by surface area but by specific 3D reef architectures. By creating 16 artificial habitats that span fractal dimension and height range and testing them with and without predator access across three estuaries, researchers found a hump-shaped recruitment response driven by predator mediation. Optimal values (fractaI dimension ~2.41, height ~7.96 cm) yielded ~35% higher oyster densities than less favorable configurations, and natural reefs clustered near these optima, offering a blueprint for restoration that integrates geometry with ecosystem engineering to enhance reef persistence.
Reconstructing a detailed Jurassic ecosystem from Dry Mesa Quarry fossils shows that baby sauropods were abundant prey, forming many predator links and feeding carnivores like Allosaurus and Torvosaurus. This plentiful supply may have kept top predators smaller for a time and influenced later evolutionary shifts toward larger hunters such as Tyrannosaurus rex.
A pod of orcas in the Gulf of California has been observed hunting and devouring the livers of young great white sharks, indicating that orca predation on these sharks may be more common than previously thought, showcasing their advanced hunting strategies and social learning.
Researchers observed orcas in the Gulf of California repeatedly attacking juvenile great white sharks by flipping them upside down to induce tonic immobility, then extracting their livers, revealing a new and strategic predation behavior in this region.
Scientists used high-speed cameras to capture in unprecedented detail how venomous snakes strike their prey, revealing that most vipers bite within 0.1 seconds, and different snake families employ various attack strategies, enhancing understanding of snake predation mechanics.
Scientists have documented for the first time a bat, specifically the greater noctule bat in Europe, catching and eating a bird in midair during migration, revealing an unexpected predator of high-altitude migrating birds.