Could life on earth exist without predators? I'm aware of possible population booms and food shortages resulting in death of some or most species if predators disappeared. Would that kill all species?
>>4779176Life on earth without predators would be simple bacterial mats.
Humans exist without predators. And unfortunately we're the most successful species at it.
>>4779176As far as we know, for life as we know it, predation is unavoidable. Life's purpose is to gather energy and as life itself can be a source of energy it seems natural that predation would quickly develop. I think >>4779183 is accurate. The predator-prey relationship has been one of the most impactful driving forces of evolution. Without it the only real contest is fighting for space or evolving more efficient methods to capture energy (which would likely lead to predation anyway).
>>4779186We have predators, our defense strategies are just excellent.>>4779183Why ? Why would lack of predators prevent plants and animals from evolving ?>>4779176I don't see why it would kill all species.
>>4779251Those little guys flipping out in panic the moment they realize they've been caught is hard to watch.
>>4779257>Why ? Why would lack of predators prevent plants and animals from evolving ?You would be removing the most rigorous method of enforcing selection.
>>4779348Competition for resources should be enough
>>4779350Inevitably ends in killing your competition and reclaiming the resources from them
>>4779176>all predators die>plant munchers eat all the food there is until most starve>some figure out that they can eat other plant munchers' corpses>eventually go from eating corpses they find to making corpses to eat>predators are back
>>4779176Life requires competition to thrive. Herbivores are predators for plants, and plants themselves are opposites to oxygen breathing life. There are mass extinction events and a billion year dormancy caused by lack of competition. >>4779183Look up the cyanobacteria, the snowglobe, and the boring billion. There is a good reason why life started on earth 3.5 billion years ago, but only really properly kickstarted 500 million years ago
>>4779176This nigga thinks deer don't prey on plants.
>>4779395Sometimes the plants bite back.
>>4779395Yeah any living thing consuming another living thing is predation. When we take this into account, what are the only animals that don't predate? Detritivores?
>>4779405Sponges or something that just vacuums the ocean floor?
>>4779409Nah, sponges eat plankton and bacteria. Fuck detritivores eat bacteria too. How far can this go. Is there such a thing as an animal that SOLELY consumes inorganic material??
>>4779395By that logic my cock is a predator because it preys on your mothers womb
>>4779386Based ‘anty poster
>>4779176Are parasites and pathogens still around? The ecological chaos that would ensue (especially in places like the ocean) would be immense, but I could at least see parasitism playing an even bigger role in population dynamics once a new equilibrium forms.
Random Anon bumping 'cause I specifically wanna know more about this:>>4779183 >>4779386I've always really loved Dinosaurs, but have recently begun fascinated on how truly 'alien' the biosphere on Earth was before certain important organisms existed. Like, "how and why" things operated different in the absence of entire groups/families of organisms that are basically to what we consider 'Nature'.
>>4779412If I remember, there are some extremophile bacteria that feed entirely from aquatic volcanic runoff.That's probably the closest you will get.
>>4781197i like nipples too
>>4779353thiswhen the first individual realizes it can just kill off their competitors, predation rises again
>>4779417the parasitized being needs to absorb energy to sustain itself and the parasites, this energy has to come from something. inorganic material cant offer enough energy to support this food chain, extremophiles like >>4781225 pointed out are tiny and can barely support themselves on inorganic material
>>4779414That makes it a small prey
>>4779405Only thing I can think of is mutualistic interactions like plants and pollinators. It's not predation if they both species benefit.
