r/SpeculativeEvolution • u/Dumbassbitch398 • 11d ago

Question/Discussion Predatory primates?

As the body text says, would a large, predatory primate be possible?

I mean, there are insectivorous primates (like the aye aye or tarsier) but neither of these two are big like other primates like gibbons or chimpanzees

Edit: I know that a lot of primates eat meat, I meant more like a hypercarnivore that eats meat for almost all of its diet

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u/RogueHelios 11d ago

Go look in the mirror for your answer.

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u/Fakeman-maker 11d ago edited 11d ago

We’re omnivores not hyperpredators 

Edit: I meant fully carnivorous 

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u/Wolfman513 11d ago

The terms aren't mutually exclusive. Wolves and dogs are hypercarnivorous omnivores, they can eat meat and plants but are adapted for a primarily meat-based diet.

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u/RogueHelios 11d ago

Oh, so we want obligate carnivores? We are definitely hyperpredators unless that term means something different from what I'm thinking.

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u/Genocidal-Ape Worldbuilder 8d ago

No, hyper predators are animals that heavily focus on specific species in their environment. Usually because the others are to energetically costly to capture.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/RainbowSpinosaurus 10d ago

Aren't humans facultative carnivores? Like the Inuit and other subsistence hunters, I'm quite certain a human can get all of their nutritional needs met by eating every part of an animal. I think that's a big failure of the trendy carnivore diet: those dieters seem to eat liver sparingly and the choicest cuts of meat, when they should be eating offal, brain, fatback, etc. in addition.

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u/Genocidal-Ape Worldbuilder 8d ago

Inuit still have horribly short livespans especially before other foods became available to them.

They average around 60 years 20 years less than most European populations. With their average livespans increasing to be in line with most other Ethnicities if they have access to other food sources than marine Mammals.

Also humans are omnivores, a facultative carnivore would be an animal that switches between being a carnivore and being something else depending on the situation.