Keystone species mussel population explodes uncontrollably, driving out most other species. These creatures need not be apex predators. Sea stars are prey for sharks, rays, and sea anemones. Sea otters are prey for orca. The jaguar, whose numbers in Central and South America have been classified as near threatened, acts as a keystone predator by its widely varied diet, helping to balance the mammalian jungle ecosystem with its consumption of 87 different species of prey. The lion is another keystone species. Keystone mutualists are organisms that participate in mutually beneficial interaction and the loss of which would have a profound impact upon
Aliens/Predator: Deadliest of the Species references to his previous short comic "Renegade". Claremont remarked that the editor of the series gave him far more creative freedom than he was accustomed to: "So long as I don't violate the basic parameters of the Alien/Predator universe - there's a limit to what we can establish about them, and I'm stretching that by establishing a female Predator - I can do pretty much what I want. I can write the kind of characters I want, and that's a freedom I haven't had in a long time, especially as regarding the X-Men." The comics were collected as two trade