# If every creature was the same size... what would be top of the food chain? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 24, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674 "2017-02-24T22:20:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/21 "2017-02-25T09:58:55Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > I might be missing something but wouldn’t a scaled up chimp go through a human like a hot knife through butter? You wouldn’t have to scale up a chimp all that much. In fact, gorillas would “scale down”. We win because… weapons. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/22 "2017-02-25T10:47:39Z")
Even if we ignore the smallest things, I’m not sure humans would survive ants alone. If my googling gave me the proper answer, there’s a million ants per one human on Earth right now. Could you survive a million 80 kg ants that would want to eat you? ---
**Author:** ![guitario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@guitario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guitario)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/23 "2017-02-25T11:47:39Z")
Great answers, and some points I hadn’t considered. But I’m still going with spiders. If they were scaled up to human size and were able to move with the same relative speed, they’d be unstoppable surely. Add in their ability to use webs… there’s little we could do about it. Interestingly, I read somewhere that out of all the cats in the world, the humble domestic kitty is the most agile and deadly relative to its size. In other words, If they were the same size, your pet cat would kill a tiger or a lion with ease. A 6ft chimp wouldn’t be a pleasant animal to encounter either… And if we were shrunk down to anything smaller than about 3ft in height, I don’t think we’d last long against most large species. I can only imagine the terror a dwarf feels when in the presence of an extremely large dog, let alone something aggressive. ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/24 "2017-02-25T12:19:31Z")
pound for pound …my money on the Honey Badger. Honey Badger don’t give a shit. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/25 "2017-02-25T18:11:14Z")
Batman, if he’s prepared. ---
**Author:** ![Fruitbat2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Fruitbat2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fruitbat2)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/26 "2017-02-25T18:16:59Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > I might be missing something but wouldn’t a scaled up chimp go through a human like a hot knife through butter? Individual humans would probably be killed by individuals of other species but humans’ far superior intelligence would win out overall, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/27 "2017-02-25T19:22:34Z")
Do we get to keep our M1A1 Abrams? ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/28 "2017-02-25T19:41:03Z")
My vote is for some form of ant. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/29 "2017-02-25T20:17:28Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > My vote is for some form of ant. Good point - the OP didn’t specify numbers as they current exist in the species population. Because if we go by a 10 trillion army ant swarm, like the huge swarms that maraud through the Amazon rainforest (or something like that,) and each of those is the size of a human being, who could stop them from overrunning a continent? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/30 "2017-02-26T00:18:30Z")
My answer would also be an ant. As long as strength scaled the same as size. How strong would a 150 lb ant be (ignoring exoscelotel problems, perhaps everything scales down to the size of an ant). And ants organize into social colonies and create cities. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/31 "2017-02-26T00:21:03Z")
Due to reasons of design, i think you need to decide to scale down. You can not scale an insect up, its breathing system will fail, and its skeletal system also does not work when scaled up, the mass would have to increase beyond the scale and become a hindrance. I would probably still say you would have man at top of the food chain, because small or not, he can still think and create tools and weapons to take away any other species advantages. After all, we did learn to take down a mammoth with sticks and pieces of rock ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/32 "2017-02-26T00:23:46Z")
To late to edit. But considering there number and ability to live pretty much anywhere, well, I would not like to come upon a 150 lb house cat either. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674/33 "2017-02-26T01:03:40Z")
If there were giant ants we would have simply trained them to dig our mines. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-every-creature-was-the-same-size-what-would-be-top-of-the-food-chain/780674.md?page=1)