natural-world-facts 4 years ago
Leo's Deep Sea Documentaries #Wildlife

Natural World Facts | Deep Sea Gigantism Explained

Biologists still aren’t certain why it is that some abyssal creatures grow to these immense sizes, for we have still only scratched the surface of discovery in the deep. But there are many theories, which may help to shed light on this mystery of the oceanic deep.

A brilliant example to show that deep sea fauna does indeed follow this rule, is the mollusk group, gastropods, which includes slugs and snails.


In the deep, many species that are near symmetrical to shallower varieties, grow to be huge. The deep sea isopod belongs to a group that rarely grows larger than a few inches in the shadows, but down here they can grow to half a metre in length, and weigh approximately 1.7 kilograms.


This variety, the giant isopod, is found in the deep, cold waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean.


00:00 - Introduction

00:47 - Deep Sea Gigantism

01:16 - How Deep Sea Organisms Grow so Large

01:52 - Kleiber's Rule - Larger Animals are More Efficient

02:44 - Bergman's Rule - Sea Animals Grow Larger in Cold Climates

03:57 - Gigantism in the Colossal Squid

04:13 - The Island Rule

05:16 - How the Deep Sea Mirrors the Island Rule

06:03 - Gigantism in the Giant Isopod

06:40 - Resources in the Deep Ocean

07:03 - Conclusion

07:54 - Outro

Natural World Facts
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