The winners of mass extinction: With predators gone, prey thrives
Monday, May 2, 2011 - 14:50
in Paleontology & Archaeology
In modern ecology, the removal or addition of a predator to an ecosystem can produce dramatic changes in the population of prey species. For the first time, scientists have observed the same dynamics in the fossil record, thanks to a mass extinction that decimated ocean life 360 million years ago.