In the deepest and coldest parts of the ocean, sea creatures can reach gargantuan proportions. There are many types of animals that grow to larger sizes around the world. The phenomenon is called gigantism.
According to the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, the colossal squid is 14 times longer than the arrow squid. There is a sea sponge the size of a minivan in the Pacific. What is the cause of deep and frigid ocean waters causing creatures to grow so big? Factors in the extremely cold waters may allow it to happen.
A study published in the Journal of Biogeography in 2006 shows that resources are limited in the deepest parts of the ocean. Most of the food comes from shallow waters and only a small amount trickles down to the sea depths. Being bigger gives a huge advantage to deep sea species, according to a senior aquarist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Larger animals can move faster to find food or a mate. They are better at storing food. When a big carcass is drifting down to deeper waters, big predator can consume more and store that energy for a longer time.
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gigantism can be caused by cold temperatures in the deep sea. The Greenland shark is a very slow growing creature, Bitondo said. The shark can grow to be 24 feet long and weigh up to 1.5 tons, but that growth is spread out over the course of centuries. Bitondo said that the average size of the sharks in the area is about 1 centimeter per year. She said that the sharks can live so long and grow so large due to a lack of predators in the deep sea.
Humans found deep-sea giants near the South Pole. gigantism happens close to the surface. There are giant organisms in the shallow water. Art Woods, an ecophysiologist who has studied polar gigantism and a professor at the University of Montana, told Live Science that they are within scuba range as shallow as 30 feet. Woods suggested that gigantism could be linked to the cold waters surrounding the frozen continent.
Oxygen concentration is high in the polar waters according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Woods explained that cold water temperatures reduce the metabolisms of animals. It is possible that growth constraints are lifted because of the abundant oxygen supply. He said that the environment allows them to develop larger body size and tissue size without suffering oxygen deprivation. He said that a rich supply of oxygen likely allows sea creatures to become large.
There is a limit to how big polar giants can grow. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Wood and colleagues studied giant arctic sea spiders, which can grow to be about the size of a dinner plate. The team found that the sea spiders had less oxygen in their bodies. Aerobic metabolism depends on oxygen supply, and if it gets too low, tissues will suffer from oxygen deprivation. The researchers reported that the oxygen level in large sea spiders has fallen, suggesting that something is changing in the balance of oxygen supply and demand.
They can reach a size where they can't get enough oxygen in, Woods said.
No one is certain about the precise mechanisms that drive dramatic evolutionary changes in body size, even though there are several hypotheses about the different factors that can produce ocean giants.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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