Predators

kingsnake coil
A kingsnake coils around a dead mouse that has a pressure sensor on it. Some kingsnakes exert more than twice the constriction pressure that rat snakes do. (Image credit: David Penning/Missouri Southern State University)

Never get between a predator and its prey — unless you’re a gutsy scientist with a generous life insurance policy. Here is the latest news and findings on creatures that hunt, kill, and make Shark Week the best week.

Latest about predators

An artist's interpretation of the newfound giant petrel ripping into a dead seal about 3 million years ago in what is now New Zealand.

3 million years ago, this brutish giant petrel likely eviscerated dead seals with its knife-like beak

By Ethan Freedman published

Fossils from New Zealand reveal the existence of a giant petrel with a wicked sharp beak that lived 3 million years ago.

An illustration of Late Devonian animals.

Giant ancient fish that likely preyed on humans' ancestors unearthed in South Africa

By Sascha Pare published

Researchers in South Africa have unearthed 360 million-year-old fossils belonging to a newly described voracious fish species that preyed on our ancestors.

A reticulated python (Python reticulatus), like the one pictured here, is likely the python species that killed and swallowed a woman in Indonesia.

Missing woman’s body discovered in the stomach of 22-foot-long python in Indonesia

By Joanna Thompson last updated

A 54-year-old woman in Indonesia was killed and eaten by a massive python

With high-speed video, scientists have detailed, for the first time, how predatory mosquito larvae attack and capture prey in aquatic habitats.

Mosquito larvae launch their heads like tiny harpoons to nab prey, video reveals

By Mindy Weisberger last updated

Researchers have captured the first-ever footage of mosquito larvae flinging their heads at prey in deadly hunting strikes.

Great white sharks coexisted alongside megalodon before rising to take the bigger shark's place at the top of the ocean food chain.

Great white sharks may have driven megalodon to extinction

By Cameron Duke last updated

For millions of years, megalodon was the top predator in marine ecosystems. Then great whites came along and ruined everything.

Unfortunate sharks

4 Dead, Liverless Sharks Wash Ashore in Weird Whodunit

By Laura Geggel last updated

A great white shark washed up on the Gansbaai coast in South Africa after two orca whales killed it and ate its liver.

Serial killer whales have been murdering sharks and eating their livers for 5 years

By Brandon Specktor last updated

A pair of killer whales has been terrorizing great white sharks near Capetown, slaughtering at least eight sharks over five years and eating their livers, scientists say.

In this illustration, giant sharks scavenge the enormous corpse of Livyatan, an extinct, enormous sperm whale that lived around 12 million years ago.

What was megalodon's favorite snack? Sperm whale faces

By Mindy Weisberger last updated

New analysis of fossil skulls from sperm whales that lived millions of years ago shows that numerous species of ancient sharks preyed on the whales … and ate their faces.

A great white shark looking directly at the camera

Sharks: Facts about the ocean's apex predators

By Michael Dhar published

Sharks are a diverse group of often-misunderstood fish. Learn more about these predators, including their evolution, habitat, diet and behavior.

In this 3D image, created from a CT scan of an anglerfish, researchers like Karly Cohen at the University of Washington can inspect bones and teeth that grow in unusual ways (or unusual places) in deep-sea anglerfish.

Anglerfish: Biology, bioluminescence and lifecycle

By Rachel Kaufman published

Reference Meet the fish that fish for other fish.

Reference
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