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Hypercarnivore
 
 
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A hypercarnivore is an animal that exclusively eats meat. Some examples include dolphin
Dolphin

File:Bottlenose_Dolphin_KSC04pd0178.jpgDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genus....
s, eagle
Eagle

Eagles are large bird of prey which are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several Genus which are not necessarily closely related to each other....
s, snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
s, marlin
Marlin

Marlin, Istiophoridae, is a member of a group of marine fish known as "billfish", and is closely linked to the freshwater trout. A marlin has an elongated body, a spear-like snout, and a long rigid dorsal fin, which extends forwards to form a crest....
, most shark
Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
s, and such invertebrates as octopus
Octopus

The octopus is a cephalopod of the order Octopoda that inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. The term may also refer to only those creatures in the genus Octopus ....
es. Additionally, this term is also used in paleobiology
Paleobiology

Paleobiology is a growing and comparatively new discipline which combines the methods and findings of the natural science biology with the methods and findings of the earth science paleontology....
 to describe taxa
Taxon

A taxon or taxonomic unit is a name designating an organism or a group of organisms. In biological nomenclature according to Carl Linnaeus, a taxon is assigned a taxonomic rank and can be placed at a particular level in a systematic hierarchy reflecting evolutionary relationships....
 of animals which have an increased slicing component of their dentition
Dentition

Dentition is the tooth development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth.All mammals except the monotremes, the xenarthrans, the pangolins, and the cetaceans have up to four distinct types of teeth, with a maximum number for each....
 relative to the grinding component.

Hypercarnivores need not be superpredators. Salmon
Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the family are called trout,the difference is often attributed to the migratory life of the salmon as compared to the residential behaviour of trout, this holds true for the Atlantic salmon....
 are exclusively carnivorous, yet they are prey at all stages of life for a variety of organisms.

Many prehistoric mammals of the clade Carnivoramorpha
Carnivoramorpha

Carnivoramorpha are a clade of mammals that includes the modern order Carnivora and its closest extinct relatives in the Miacoidea , but excludes the creodonts....
 (Carnivora and Miacoidea
Miacoidea

Miacoidea is an extinct paraphyletic family that has been traditionally divided into two family of carnivores: Miacidae and Viverravidae. They were primitive carnivores which lived during the Paleocene and Eocene Epoch about 33-65 million years ago....
 without Creodonta
Creodonta

The creodonts are an extinct order of mammals that lived from the Paleocene to the Miocene epochs. They shared a common ancestor with the Carnivora....
), along with the early Order Creodonta, and some mammals of the even earlier Order Cimolesta
Cimolesta

Cimolesta is an extinct order of mammals. A few experts place the pangolins within Cimolesta, though most other experts prefer to place the pangolins within their own order, Pholidota....
, were hypercarnivores.






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A hypercarnivore is an animal that exclusively eats meat. Some examples include dolphin
Dolphin

File:Bottlenose_Dolphin_KSC04pd0178.jpgDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genus....
s, eagle
Eagle

Eagles are large bird of prey which are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several Genus which are not necessarily closely related to each other....
s, snake
Snake

Snakes are elongate legless carnivore reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears....
s, marlin
Marlin

Marlin, Istiophoridae, is a member of a group of marine fish known as "billfish", and is closely linked to the freshwater trout. A marlin has an elongated body, a spear-like snout, and a long rigid dorsal fin, which extends forwards to form a crest....
, most shark
Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
s, and such invertebrates as octopus
Octopus

The octopus is a cephalopod of the order Octopoda that inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. The term may also refer to only those creatures in the genus Octopus ....
es. Additionally, this term is also used in paleobiology
Paleobiology

Paleobiology is a growing and comparatively new discipline which combines the methods and findings of the natural science biology with the methods and findings of the earth science paleontology....
 to describe taxa
Taxon

A taxon or taxonomic unit is a name designating an organism or a group of organisms. In biological nomenclature according to Carl Linnaeus, a taxon is assigned a taxonomic rank and can be placed at a particular level in a systematic hierarchy reflecting evolutionary relationships....
 of animals which have an increased slicing component of their dentition
Dentition

Dentition is the tooth development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth.All mammals except the monotremes, the xenarthrans, the pangolins, and the cetaceans have up to four distinct types of teeth, with a maximum number for each....
 relative to the grinding component.

Hypercarnivores need not be superpredators. Salmon
Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the family are called trout,the difference is often attributed to the migratory life of the salmon as compared to the residential behaviour of trout, this holds true for the Atlantic salmon....
 are exclusively carnivorous, yet they are prey at all stages of life for a variety of organisms.

Many prehistoric mammals of the clade Carnivoramorpha
Carnivoramorpha

Carnivoramorpha are a clade of mammals that includes the modern order Carnivora and its closest extinct relatives in the Miacoidea , but excludes the creodonts....
 (Carnivora and Miacoidea
Miacoidea

Miacoidea is an extinct paraphyletic family that has been traditionally divided into two family of carnivores: Miacidae and Viverravidae. They were primitive carnivores which lived during the Paleocene and Eocene Epoch about 33-65 million years ago....
 without Creodonta
Creodonta

The creodonts are an extinct order of mammals that lived from the Paleocene to the Miocene epochs. They shared a common ancestor with the Carnivora....
), along with the early Order Creodonta, and some mammals of the even earlier Order Cimolesta
Cimolesta

Cimolesta is an extinct order of mammals. A few experts place the pangolins within Cimolesta, though most other experts prefer to place the pangolins within their own order, Pholidota....
, were hypercarnivores. The earliest carnivorous mammal is considered to be the Cimolestes
Cimolestes

Cimolestes is a genus of early eutherians. The species are found primarily in North America, where they first appeared during the Late Cretaceous, and died out during the Paleocene....
 that existed during the Late Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 and Tertiary
Tertiary

The Tertiary is a a term for a Geologic time scale#Terminology 65 million to 1.8 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and an out-of-date definition of the Neogene#Controversy....
 Periods in North America about 65 million years ago. Theropod dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s such as Tyrannosaurus rex
Tyrannosaurus

Tyrannosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur. The famous species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture around the world....
 that existed during the late Cretaceous, although not mammals, were obligate
Obligate

Obligate could be:* An adjective meaning "by necessity" and used mostly in biology, especially in the phrases:** Obligate parasite, a parasite that cannot survive without its host...
 carnivores.

Large hypercarnivores evolved frequently in the fossil record, often in response to an ecological opportunity afforded by the decline or extinction of previously dominant hypercarnivorous taxa. While the evolution of large size and carnivory may be favored at the individual level, it can lead to a macroevolutionary decline, wherein such extreme dietary specialization results in reduced population densities and a greater vulnerability for extinction. As a result of these opposing forces, the fossil record of carnivores is dominated by successive clades of hypercarnivores that diversify and decline, only to be replaced by new hypercarnivorous clades.