{"id":42523,"date":"2024-10-09T12:33:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T10:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1470c33d-0f64-495b-a0be-4c64d7842e75"},"modified":"2024-10-09T15:27:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T13:27:29","slug":"what-was-the-first-ever-apex-predator-meet-the-prehistoric-anomalocaris-who-ruled-before-the-dinosaurs","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/what-was-the-first-ever-apex-predator-meet-the-prehistoric-anomalocaris-who-ruled-before-the-dinosaurs\/","title":{"rendered":"What was the first ever apex predator? Meet the prehistoric Anomalocaris who ruled before the dinosaurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Chamber takes a look at the world’s first top predator, who ruled the Earth’s waters 500 million years ago <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 09 October 2024 at 10:33 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Anomalocaris<\/em> was the great white shark<\/a> of its day, cruising the shallow Cambrian seas in search of prey 500 million years ago.<\/strong><\/p>

It could grow to the length of a modern human, was fast, had good eyesight and possessed a large circular mouth made from razor-sharp plates. <\/p>

Meet the most dangerous animals in the ocean<\/a><\/li><\/ul>
We know from its fossilised faeces that Anomalocaris<\/em> hunted trilobites and primitive shrimp-like animals. It would probably have held its victims in its two huge front appendages and then crushed them, passing the pieces to its mouth.<\/p>
As the first top apex predator<\/a>, Anomalocaris may have been responsible for an early evolutionary arms race, forcing other animals to develop hard shells for protection.<\/p>
Deadliest apex predators in the wild: which ruthless mammals are the best killing machines?<\/a><\/li><\/ul>
<\/div><\/figure><p><strong>Discover more fascinating prehistoric species<\/strong><\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/insects-invertebrates\/why-were-prehistoric-insects-so-large\">Why were prehistoric insects so large?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/prehistoric-cats\">Prehistoric cats: meet 10 ruthless feline hunters that roamed the planet thousands of years ago<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/gigantopithecus-largest-ape\">At a staggering 3 metres tall the extinct prehistoric Gigantopithecus is the biggest ape ever, but it wouldn’t be the heaviest…<\/a><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Chamber takes a look at the world’s first top predator, who ruled the Earth’s waters 500 million years ago <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":42524,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/what-was-the-first-ever-apex-predator-meet-the-prehistoric-anomalocaris-who-ruled-before-the-dinosaurs.jpg",2309,1299,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/what-was-the-first-ever-apex-predator-meet-the-prehistoric-anomalocaris-who-ruled-before-the-dinosaurs-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/what-was-the-first-ever-apex-predator-meet-the-prehistoric-anomalocaris-who-ruled-before-the-dinosaurs-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/what-was-the-first-ever-apex-predator-meet-the-prehistoric-anomalocaris-who-ruled-before-the-dinosaurs-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/what-was-the-first-ever-apex-predator-meet-the-prehistoric-anomalocaris-who-ruled-before-the-dinosaurs-1024x576.jpg",800,450,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/what-was-the-first-ever-apex-predator-meet-the-prehistoric-anomalocaris-who-ruled-before-the-dinosaurs-1536x864.jpg",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/what-was-the-first-ever-apex-predator-meet-the-prehistoric-anomalocaris-who-ruled-before-the-dinosaurs-2048x1152.jpg",2048,1152,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Paul Chamber takes a look at the world's first top predator, who ruled the Earth's waters 500 million years ago","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/42523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}