Summary
The warm, crowded swamps teem with life, from the enormous sauropod Austroposeidon to hungry predators competing for the same meal. The episode traces how food and energy move through a wetland packed with plants, plant-eaters, and hunters. A rich example of how the members of an ecosystem depend on one another.
Viewer safety
Predators compete over prey and there are feeding scenes -- some meat and blood shown briefly; preview first.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
"Swamps" shows how a crowded wetland ecosystem works.
- Where does the energy in the swamp start? Trace it from plants to a predator.
- Why do predators end up competing over the same food?
- What does the giant sauropod eat, and how much would a body that size need?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: swamp, ecosystem, energy, food web, decomposer.
Try it: Draw a short food chain from the swamp that starts with a plant and ends with a predator. Add arrows to show which way the energy moves.