Sizing Ocean Giants: Patterns of Intraspecific Size Variation in Marine Megafauna
Sizing ocean giants: patterns of intraspecific size variation in marine megafauna Craig R. McClain1,2 , Meghan A. Balk3, Mark C. Benfield4, Trevor A. Branch5, Catherine Chen2, James Cosgrove6, Alistair D.M. Dove7, Lindsay C. Gaskins2, Rebecca R. Helm8, Frederick G. Hochberg9, Frank B. Lee2, Andrea Marshall10, Steven E. McMurray11, Caroline Schanche2, Shane N. Stone2 and Andrew D. Thaler12 1 National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, Durham, NC, USA 2 Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA 3 Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA 4 Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA 5 School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 6 Natural History Section, Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, BC, Canada 7 Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, GA, USA 8 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA 9 Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, CA, USA 10 Marine Megafauna Foundation, Truckee, CA, USA 11 Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA 12 Blackbeard Biologic: Science and Environmental Advisors, Vallejo, CA, USA ABSTRACT What are the greatest sizes that the largest marine megafauna obtain? This is a simple question with a diYcult and complex answer. Many of the largest-sized species occur in the world’s oceans. For many of these, rarity, remoteness, and quite simply the logistics of measuring these giants has made obtaining accurate size measurements diYcult. Inaccurate reports of maximum sizes run rampant through the scientific Submitted 3 October 2014 literature and popular media.
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