Showing posts with label urchin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label urchin. Show all posts

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Defying Trophic Levels



Urchin eating baby cormorant bird.
You might have gotten this email too, but just in case I wanted to share this strange phenomenon.  In ecology we often look at a fixed trophic structure or even a complicated food web.  I think this proves that the food web is more dynamic than we realize.  Urchins have a pretty adaptable diet. Maybe birds are not a preference, but I'm sure this meal was nutritious!  (It still gives me the creeps though.)

 Check out the article for video proof:
http://deepseanews.com/2014/05/anemone-consumes-a-baby-seabird/

This is a link to the paper recently published from a study in oregon:  http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/42_1/42_1_1-2.pdf