Re: T.Rex Feather Skepticism

[Roberto Takata <rmtakata@gmail.com>]

2005/9/15, frank bliss <frank@blissnet.com>:
> Didn't know that but are the zooplankton strictly the predatory
> pressure on the phytoplankton?

They are phytoplankton predator too. But there are whales, whale
sharks and others.

> I doubt it and at such a base trophic level even the zooplankton are predated 
> upon by 
> others so really they are prey too.

Surely zooplankton are predated by others organisms, but it doesn't
alter the fact that phytoplankton biomass - in a given time - could be
lesser than its predator biomass.

>  I was looking more for a terrestrial analogue of predator biomass exceeding 
> prey 
> biomass in a surviving viable community.

Well, in a terrestrial ecossystem, I'm not sure, but I think that
there is no instance of a higher trophic level biomass being greater
than a lower one.

> Certainly the numbers of predatory dinosaurs were far less than their 
> herbivore 
> counterparts.

At least as a total biomass... The *number* of individuals could be
greater than those of preys.

[]s,

Roberto Takata