Ocean Explorer

During the Ocean Explorer visit, we found that the creatures undersea can be very huge. 


Why are creatures are bigger under greater depths? 

Answer: 

Two general rules seem to dictate this growth: Kleiber’s rule and Bergmann’s rule. Kleiber’s rule states that animals that are bigger are generally more efficient. A cat for example, having a mass 100 times that of a mouse, will have a metabolism roughly 32 times greater than that of a mouse. Kleiber’s law, as many other biological allometric laws, is a consequence of the physics and geometry of animal circulatory systems. It also has a lot to do with surface area to volume and the fractal nature of blood vessels. Huge animals swimming in the depths of the oceans rely on food to drop from above, and food is often scarce, so they have every incentive to become more efficient – and therefore larger.

Bergman’s rule is a general correlation of increasing body size with decreasing temperature. Populations and species of larger size are found in colder environments, and species of smaller size are found in warmer regions – but this is tendency more than a rule. For warm blooded animals this happens because the bigger you are, the less area you have in contact with the surrounding environment compared to your volume. But for animals swimming in the sea, this is correlated to cell division and increased life span. But there is some debate regarding this rule, and other factors also contribute to the body growth.

Reference: 
https://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/deep-sea-giant-creature/