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Supporting Predators: Changes in the Global Ecosystem Inferred from Changes in Predator Diversity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2017

Richard K. Bambach
Richard K. Bambach*
Affiliation:
Virginia Tech; Botanical Museum, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
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Abstract

This paper presents new estimates of the genus diversity of predators in each major taxon containing predators, as well as an estimate of the total genus diversity of predators through the Phanerozoic. Predators have never been numerically abundant compared to prey. However, the diversity of predators and the proportion of total faunal diversity composed of predators have both increased over time, implying that ecosystems have increased their ability to support either more predators or more specialization among predators. Also, turnover in diversity dominance among predator groups, with more energetic predator taxa replacing or being added to a fauna of less energetic groups, implies that the energy available in marine food webs has increased. The apparent increase in diversity and biomass of primary producers plus patterns of diversity change in prey taxa supports these inferences based on patterns of change in predators alone.

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Type
Section III: Processes
Information
The Paleontological Society Papers , Volume 8: The Fossil Record of Predation , October 2002, pp. 319 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by The Paleontological Society 

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