Timeline for How large could an animal that only eats blood become?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 24, 2023 at 22:44 | vote | accept | James Grossmann | ||
| Apr 18, 2023 at 16:10 | comment | added | David R | @KEY_ABRADE Yes, an organism can use blood-letting to kill a prey. However, it is unlikely to evolve to only use the blood if the prey is killed. There are so many other parts of the prey body that provide far more stored energy that almost every predatory animal uses the rest of the body of their prey. The whole point of predatory behavior is to get the stored energy that the prey has. Evolution favors eating the whole body. | |
| Apr 18, 2023 at 0:38 | comment | added | KEY_ABRADE | @DavidR Why can't an organism suck all the blood from its prey, kill it in the process, and then move on to a different prey item? | |
| Apr 17, 2023 at 19:11 | comment | added | Loren Pechtel | @JBH This isn't a case of square-cube, though--in this case the limit is almost certainly in being able to find and obtain food. It's limited by it's prey long before it's limited biologically. | |
| Apr 17, 2023 at 7:50 | comment | added | JBH | @LorenPechtel You missed my point. We've hosted a LOT of "how big can X get?" questions on this Stack, and they're always limited by the square-cube law. Period. Do you really think the answer to this question will be different *just because it's not a bat?" My point is that the OP should have taken the time to research any of the many "how big can X get?" questions on the Stack. Or any one of the "How nutritious is blood?" questions, for that matter. I didn't VTC, but I think I will down vote for lack of research. | |
| Apr 16, 2023 at 1:12 | comment | added | James Grossmann | JBH: The question is not a duplicate of "Largest possible bat," since that question has nothing to do with blood feeding and the largest possible sanguivore would not necessarily be capable of flight. | |
| Apr 15, 2023 at 14:17 | comment | added | David R | Blood sucking is a "parasitic" behavior, not a "predation" behavior. Evolutionarily, parasites can't kill their hosts and thus are limited to how much they take from a host. Parasites are inherently limited to being significantly smaller than what they eat from. | |
| Apr 15, 2023 at 12:20 | history | edited | Daron | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edited title
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| Apr 15, 2023 at 8:29 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Apr 15, 2023 at 9:09 | |||||
| Apr 15, 2023 at 7:39 | answer | added | lupe | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 15, 2023 at 4:28 | review | Close votes | |||
| Apr 16, 2023 at 1:27 | |||||
| Apr 15, 2023 at 4:25 | comment | added | Loren Pechtel | @JBH How is he asking for the largest bat?? Just because the only terrestrial obligate sanguivore vertebrate is a bat doesn't mean he's after a bat at all, let alone the largest one. | |
| Apr 15, 2023 at 3:56 | comment | added | JBH | Users have been asking "how big can X get?" on this stack for the better part of ten years. Technically, this appears to be a duplicate of Largest possible bat. Please take a moment to search the Stack and see what answers already exist. Use "is:q" to focus only on the questions. | |
| Apr 15, 2023 at 3:44 | history | asked | James Grossmann | CC BY-SA 4.0 |