He tried, he said, to put the brakes on the superpredator theory, which had all but taken on a life of its own.

It has also been suggested that a successful alien species would be a superpredator, as is Homo sapiens.

The juvenile delinquent has become the superpredator.

The cause was the so-called superpredator.

The largest member of this group, Dunkleosteus, was a true superpredator of the latest Devonian period, reaching 3 to as much as 9 metres in length.

As homicide rates have dropped the past few years, criminal-justice experts have warned that they could soon rise again as a generation of superpredator juveniles came of age.

Then a professor at Princeton, married and the father of three young children, Mr. DiIulio became a prominent voice in the world of criminology with his superpredator theory.

"The superpredator thing led to horrific legislation," and "while he may have backed away from the idea, he has never really recanted it," said Jerry Miller, president of the nonpartisan National Center on Institutions and Alternatives.

The superpredator, Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, mad-cow disease, crib death: how can we fail to heed the expert's advice on these horrors when, like that mean uncle telling too-scary stories to too-young children, he has reduced us to quivers?