What is the longest food chain in the natural world?

[YT2095]

you`ve never seen a mountain cat run down a hill and across water into a flock of geese for a kill?

[aommaster]

ummm... nope tbh! I watch alot of discovery channel, animal planet, and national geographic, and have not seen it chase. I'll take your word for it.

 

Accrordiing to what we have been discussing, your food chain has 6 creatures in:

Producer -> Primary consumer -> secondary consumer -> Tertiary consumer -> Quadternary consumer -> Quinary consumer

 

Wow! Thanx! IF we consider the bear and the human, what type of consumer would each of them be, after quinary consumer?

[YT2095]

hex, sept, nov, dec, etc....

[aommaster]

hmmm.. then why is the fifth one called quinary consumer, and not penternay consumers?

[YT2095]

not a clue, it`s a linguistic prob and I only do 2 and a bit langs?

[aommaster]

lol! That's why I had a doubt with what you said:

 

hex, sept, nov, dec, etc....

 

it could be something else!

[YT2095]

quite possibly, but those are the ones I`m familiar with as standard prefixes in many number systems

[aommaster]

Yeah, I'm also used to using those prefixes, but the quinery part kind of threw me off

[YT2095]

that`s part of the beauty in the forums, you get to learn as much as you share (it is for me anyway)

[aommaster]

you get to learn as much as you share (it is for me anyway)

I would think it would be among all the other members as well. That's what the science forums are here for, the shiring of knowledge.

 

BTW, we seem to have drifted slightly off topic

[atinymonkey]

ummm... nope tbh! I watch alot of discovery channel' date=' animal planet, and national geographic, and have not seen it chase. I'll take your word for it.

 

Accrordiing to what we have been discussing, your food chain has 6 creatures in:

Producer -> Primary consumer -> secondary consumer -> Tertiary consumer -> Quadternary consumer -> Quinary consumer

 

Wow! Thanx! IF we consider the bear and the human, what type of consumer would each of them be, after quinary consumer?[/quote']

 

Quinary consumer -> senary consumer -> septenary consumer -> octonary consumer -> nonary consumer -> denary consumer -> duodenary consumer -> vigenary consumer.

 

I had to check though, obviously.

[Glider]

Wasps do in fact eat spiders' date=' I`ve seen it many times (

 

wild dogs will kill and eat even large mountain cats that are caught alone, and many a bear has killed a wild dog, although I`m sure if they eat them? but they`re not suposed to eat people either (like sharks) but it`s been known![/quote']

What is a mountain cat? Do you mean the North American mountain lion? If so, there are no wild dogs there.

[aommaster]

What a bout a lynx? Won't that be considered a mountain cat? Again. I don't think that wild dogs live in those areas. What about wolves maybe?

 

Quinary consumer -> senary consumer -> septenary consumer -> octonary consumer -> nonary consumer -> denary consumer -> duodenary consumer -> vigenary consumer.

 

thanx alot for that! Really useful now!

[YT2095]

a Wolf I`de consider a wild dog (at least I`m sure it`s the same family), and a Cougar or the mountain lion would qualify as the Cat part, a Lynx too, but they`re too small and would get just as badly hurt in a fight with a wolf.

[aommaster]

umm.... they would only loose because wolves hunt in packs,remember!

[YT2095]

true, how about Plankton, Fish, Seal, Polar Bear, Birds (they eat it when it`s dead).

I don`t know what would eat the birds though?

[aommaster]

Well, I am trying to avoid using scavengers and after the death of the animal stuff. If we consider it like this, then we would form a never-ending food chain. I want animals that hunt other animals down.

[Sayonara]

Like I said; if you don't decide how much mass from one trophic level has to pass to the next trophic level in order to qualify as a link in the chain, you aren't going to get very far before the discussion descends into debates over whether or not certain interactions "count".

[aommaster]

Well, the limits that i would put it would be:

-No decomposers or bacteria or fungi

-All animals must be hunted down in order to be counter (therefore, no scavengers)

-No humans!

[Sayonara]

What about insects and their larvae?

[YT2095]

yeah, I was thinking Maggots then Flies too.

 

how about; Grass, cricket, bird, snake, aligator

[aommaster]

What about insects and their larvae?

Nope because some insects' diet changes when they get bigger

 

how about; Grass, cricket, bird, snake, aligator

Again, you are specifying what could eat another animal. Snakes and allligators hardly ever meet and the alligator almost never eats a snake. They usually feed on bigger creatures like zebras and water buffalo

[Nerd of All]

I found a food chain that has a duodenary consumer in the ocean. Picophytoplankton, flagellates, amoeba, ciliates, amoeba, euphausiids, small fish, crab, octopus, swordfish, a small shark, a bigger shark(namely great white), then killer whale.

[dimreepr]

2 hours ago, Nerd of All said:

I found a food chain that has a duodenary consumer in the ocean. Picophytoplankton, flagellates, amoeba, ciliates, amoeba, euphausiids, small fish, crab, octopus, swordfish, a small shark, a bigger shark(namely great white), then killer whale.

2

then bacteria. 

[Nerd of All]

It could have been crab then bacteria because a crab is a scavenger and will probably eat anything with meat on it.

Or you could do the whole food chain all over again, from crab to octopus, to swordfish to small shark, to great white shark to killer whale and even do the food chain all over again.

That would mean there is a 24th consumer.