Why whales are big but not bigger: Physiological drivers and ecological limits in the age of ocean giants

Although many people think of dinosaurs as being the largest creatures to have lived on Earth, the true largest known animal is still here today—the blue whale. How whales were able to become so large has long been of interest. Goldbogen et al. used field-collected data on feeding and diving events...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Goldbogen, J.A., Cade, D.E., Wisniewska, D.M., Potvin, J., Segre, P.S., Savoca, M.S., Hazen, E.L., Czapanskiy, M.F., Kahane-Rapport, S.R., DeRuiter, S.L., Gero, S., Tonnesen, P., Gough, W.T., Hanson, M.B., Holt, M.M., Jensen, F.H., Simon, M., Stimpert, A.K., Arranz, P., Johnson, D.W., Nowacek, D.P., Parks, S.E., Visser, F., Friedlaender, A.S., Tyack, P.L., Madsen, P.T., Pyenson, N.D.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Blue whale
Online Access:http://imis.nioz.nl/imis.php?module=ref&refid=319547
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Summary:Although many people think of dinosaurs as being the largest creatures to have lived on Earth, the true largest known animal is still here today—the blue whale. How whales were able to become so large has long been of interest. Goldbogen et al. used field-collected data on feeding and diving events across different types of whales to calculate rates of energy gain (see the Perspective by Williams). They found that increased body size facilitates increased prey capture. Furthermore, body-size increase in the marine environment appears to be limited only by prey availability.

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