I understand that bears and pigs did that to survive but they changed from a herbivorous diet to a omnivorous diet. But how does a animal go from a plant eater to a pure carnviore. The animal I’m talking about is the marsupial lion. I was watching a documentary on it. And they said the marsupial lion ancestor was a plant eating wombat or kola, to fill the ecological predator niche. First off why did it evolve to be a predator when there where plenty of predators on Austurlia! A terror bird, terrestrial crocodile, giant snake, megalaina and thaylcines. Second why in the word is it name the marsipual lion and it dosent look like a lion! A lion has a man. While this animal has bolt cutter teeth. I don’t understand….. If I had saw the fossil remains of a marsipual lion I wouldn’t think it was a lion, . I probably think it was some mutated animal or alien, the last thing on my mind would be that it is a lion, who discovered this animal obvliousily never seen a real lion before . http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/4134171 does that look like a lion?
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How Does Animal Start Off As A Herbivore Than Over Time Evolves Into A Pure Carnviore?
Posted on November 26, 2012.
You see these animals watch the Food Channel. They get curious about trying new recipes with meat!
It is more common the other way around. Most herbivores started out as carnivores and became herbivores. Bears are classified as carnivores, and they are closely related to wolves, dogs, seals, sea lions, otters and other dog-like carnivores, and they are more closely related to the cat-like carnivores such as the cats, mongooses, hyenas and civets than they are to true herbivores such as elephants and cows. It is true that polar bears evolved from brown bears, and brown bears eat a lot of vegetation. But such a transformation is relatively rare. Humans are primates, and primates are primarily herbivorous, but the most primitive primates are insectivores, and they almost certainly evolved from shrew-like insectivores that survived the K-T extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, as did every other mammalian order. Therefore all living herbivorous mammals, including hippos, can trace their ancestry back to insectivores 65 million years ago. Hippos are actually the closest relatives of whales, so they too may have shared a carnivorous common ancestor with the whales.
The marsupial “lion” is a close relative of thylacines and the Tasmanian devil, not a close relative of the koala or wombat. It is called a “lion” because it resembles a big cat, not because it is actually closely related to the lion.
Of course there is no sharp line between herbivore and carnivore. Many herbivores, such as hippos, do occasionally eat meat, and many carnviores, such as bears, do eat a lot of vegetation. Nevertheless, it is very difficult for a herbivore to evolve into a carnivore, because most herbivores are not used to hunting fast moving prey. They are used to eating stuff that do not move and are relatively abundant. It is easy enough for a fast animal to start eating plants, but much harder for a large and slow animal not used to catching prey to suddenly do so. Even human beings had close relatives, such as chimps, that hunted for meat. And chimps are smaller and more agile than gorillas. Many herbivores evolved large size as an anti-predator strategy, so it is necessary for them to shrink their bodies and re-evolve speed before they can hope to become carnivorous again. It can be done, but not easily.