h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...what would become the dominant species?

If every human being died tomorrow, or popped out of existence, or was whisked away by aliens to Betulgeuse, what would be the effect on the planet?

Would the crustaceans throw a ceilidh?
Would the arachnids attack?
Would insects insist on dominance?
Would the dolphins be delighted?
Would the apes go ape?
Would ... well, you get the gist

trick question, since dominance can mean many things.

i once knew which creature was dominant in terms of total tonnage of their species. but i have forgotten.

might be ants. could be grasshopers. or plankton.

who keeps track of these things?

Dogs would dominate Well - the northern hemisphere at any rate...
BCNU - Crescent

The famous biologist J B S Haldane was once asked what he knew about the 'Creator'. And he answered

An inordinate fondness for beetles.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane

'This alludes to the fact that there are more types of beetles than any other form of insect, and more insects than any other kind of animal.'

From the wiki article above

(Obviously this is precluding such single celled life forms as bacteria, (not really defined as animals as such) and viruses which don't even comprise of cells, I presume)

Life has four kingdoms

Archae (formerly known as Archaebacteria)
Bacteria
Fungi
Plants
Animals

Virii don't count as they don't fulfill all the criteria that biologists, by convention, have defined as being required for life. They can't metabolise, reproduce independently nor respire for example.

Bacteria, by far, dominate the planet in terms of total tonnage (and in terms of numbers).

But I don't think that is what the orignal poster was getting at.

What animal would be the worlds top predator, is I guess the real question?

The giraffe will come to dominate the planes and the valleys!

What makes you think a species would dominate?

Wait, no! There are 5 kingdoms of life....

Nobody expects...


Oh bugger

Mankind may disappear, but I bet you Gnomon would be back a week later.

apex predator is sort of funky for several reasons. the first is that all things are eaten by something else. so it is really less a predatory pyramid than a circle.

the second is that an apex predator in one place isn't an apex predator elsewhere.

if the question relates to most dangerous, i recall a zoopkeeper telling me the animals he most feared escaping were the baboons. but that's probably because rampaging orcas is not something we are likely to see on our streets.

It would be interesting to see how animals change, I suspect there would be less town foxes due to being no dustbin, takeaway, food litter, etc. So they would go to where there is the best food supply, possibly back to countryside.
Maybe dogs would become more wild and go around in packs like in some areas already where they are allowed to roam free. I suspect that wild pack dogs would become more vicious with hunger and take what they could find like smaller animals that are vulnerable. Maybe dogs like Rottweilers(sp?) would dominate and Chiwawas(sp?) become a small snack. Jack Russle
dogs, you would think, would remain the clever hunting dog they are and do really well, maybe not the dominant dog overal but their speed, and smallish size would would ensure their survival.
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You would imagine the greatest changes would be on animals they use the waste of man, just imagine Sea Gulls would atually become Sea Gulls again and not Rubbish Tip Gulls which many have become.
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Zoo animals would be the interesting animals. Clearly if still caged they would die out, but free to roam would say Lions really be the top animal or would there not be enough around to breed and thrive or would enough Rotweilers in a pack be able to kill one if hungry enough?

Plants would smother everything. It'd be great.

Sheep & cows probably wouldn't last too long. It's possible of course that some other ape might evolve to fill the niche left by the demise of homo sapiens.

My feeling is that the balance would see-saw between different species being in the ascendency.

Sorry, I'm totally distracted by the image of giraffes as pilots

Google 'Chernobyl wildlife' for an interesting (but rather ironic) glimpse of what happens when humans move out. Lots of birds apparently, but horses, wild boar, wolves and bears also making a comeback .

>>apex predator is sort of funky for several reasons. the first is that all things are eaten by something else. so it is really less a predatory pyramid than a circle.

the second is that an apex predator in one place isn't an apex predator elsewhere.<<

Don't quite know what you mean by this anti. I was taught that some animals are what can be described as *top carnivores* such as lions and polar bears for example. What would eat them somewhere else? (Obviously humans may; but they kill and eat everything, that goes without saying.) But what else does? And in case things can't live in other places aside from zoos/wildlife parks where they are looked after in a very intense and artificial way.

almost nothing on the planet isn't subject to being attacked and/or eaten by something else given the right circumstances. hyenas will attack lions for example. apex predation really refers to the way biomass moves thru an ecosystem, with plants etc creating the most biomass, which are then consumed by smaller numbers of herbivores, and so on to the top of the pyramid. since nearly all energy in this scenario is solar, and energy is lost as heat etc, each successive tier contains less biomass, consistent with conservation of energy.

it needs to be noted that very few things eat adult whales and elephants for example, but they are still lower on the pyramid than the creatures which will consume their carcasses. the reason i used the word funky is it doesn't really work as in the rhyme about the old lady who swallowed the fly. it's more a rock, paper, scissors deal, albeit with more parts.

Racoons might get up to interesting things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Man:_A_Zoology_of_the_Future