Source
r/whowouldwin•
FireStrike5

How far up on the food chain would a pod of orcas be if they were dropped into each of the “7 deadliest seas” from Nigel Marvin’s Sea Monsters?

Challenge

Each Sea contains different threats, and they get more deadly as the show progresses. It’d be interesting to see how a pod of orcas, the apex predator of our oceans, would fare.

Round 1: Ordovician period, 450mya. Predators seen in the show: sea scorpions, giant orthocone.

Round 2: Triassic period, 230mya. Predators: nothosaurs, Cymbospondylus.

Round 3: Devonian period, 360mya. Predators: Tanystropheus, Dunkleosteus.

Round 4: Eocene, 36mya. Predators: Basilosaurus.

Round 5: Pliocene, 4mya. Predators: Megalodon.

Round 6: Jurassic, 155mya. Predators: Hybodus, Metriorhynchis, Liopleurodon (note, Sea Monsters’ depiction of Liopleurodon is very oversized.)

Round 7: Cretaceous, 75mya. Predators: sharks, Xiphactinus, Elasmosaurus, Mosasaurs.

Posted Jul 30, 2022, 1:38 AM UTC

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Leffel95•

In round 1, 2 and 3 the orcas become apex predators easily. For round 1 they might get into long-term problems, I'm not sure if the ordovician sea has enough food to sustainably support a group of predators this large.

Round 4, 5 and 7 could go either way between the previous apex predator and the orca pod. I think it was discussed that competition from orcas could have contributed to Megalodon's extinction. 7 may be the deadliest for us, but apart from Mosasaurus there is nothing else particularly dangerous for an orca pod there. Size wise Mosasaurus and Basilosaurus are somewhat comparable so I think they would pose a similar challenge for the orca pod.

Orcas are versatile regarding their food so if they don't establish themselves as apex predator they will carve themselves a niche right below in either of these cases.

In round 6, with the completely oversized Liopleurodon, the orca pod will have to settle for one step below the apex predator. In WWD the old bull Liopleurodon is supposed to weigh 150 tonnes, that thing could easily prey on the orcas themselves.

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Iamnotburgerking•

The idea orcas outcompeted megalodon and played a role in its exticntion was never supported by fossil evidence; if anything, recent research indicates that not only did orcas only become potential competitors after the shark died out (orca ancestors during megalodon’s time were eating small fish and squid; even baby megalodon were focusing on larger prey such as larger fish and pinnipeds, let alone the adults), but also that megalodon did fine with competition from other types of raptorial cetaceans like the raptorial sperm whales back in the Late Miocene and even preyed on most of them, as well as outlasting them by lasting into the Pliocene (incidentally, this means that the Late Miocene should take the #1 spot on the list of deadliest seas because it actually had more and bigger predators than anywhere else).

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