The Arapaima is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. I Photo: David Ausserhofer
The "megafauna" has fascinated mankind since its origins, when the large animals that we feed on or that threaten us were painted on cave walls. Today we know that megafauna species play important roles in ecosystems.
But what exactly is the megafauna?
An international research team led by the Spanish University of Granada (UGR) concluded that the term megafauna is defined differently in scientific literature: from small organisms that are clearly visible in photographs to large vertebrates over 1000 kg. The authors of magafauna literature rarely clearify the term before using it.
As explained by Marcos Moleón, first author of this review, from the Department of Zoology of the UGR, "for a marine biologist concerned with seabed, for instance, megafauna can be a crab or a sea slug; for a soil researcher, megafauna could be an earthworm; for a paleontologist, megafauna refers to vertebrates similar or superior in weight to humans; and for some terrestrial ecologists, only ‘megaherbivores’ – herbivores exceeding a tone in weight – should be labeled as megafauna. This indicates that the term has been used and has evolved within each discipline, with little connection among the multiple disciplines concerned with megafauna."
Sonja Jähnig explains why consensus is important: "Such semantic questions are not trivial. Functional definitions can promote interdisciplinary understanding and improve the conceptual framework for politics and species protection – and ultimately public perception." In this review, authors suggest that size alone is insufficient to adequately describe megafauna, and propose some new definitions that also take into account the ecological function and characteristics of species.
In addition to key ecological roles they play, megafauna species are often regarded as charismatic animals. "Many megafauna species can function as flagship or umbrella species, holding the potential to promote biodiversity conservation in ecosystems they inhabit," says Fengzhi He.
Read the publication online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B >
The text is based on a press release of the University of Granada (UGR) in Spain dated 4 March 2020. The concept of the study was developed within a megafauna workshop, which was jointly supported by IGB and Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC).
