Polar gigantism dictated by oxygen availability

Gauthier Chapelle and Lloyd S. Peck ()
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Gauthier Chapelle: Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Bruxelles
Lloyd S. Peck: British Antarctic Survey

Nature, 1999, vol. 399, issue 6732, 114-115

Abstract: Abstract The tendency of some animals to be larger at higher latitudes (‘polar gigantism’) has not been explained, although it has often been attributed to low temperature and metabolism1. Investigation of gigantism requires widely distributed taxa with extensive species representation at many well-studied sites. We have analysed length data for 1,853 species of benthic amphipod crustaceans from 12 sites worldwide, from polar to tropical and marine (continental shelf) to freshwater environments. We find that maximum potential size (MPS) is limited by oxygen availability.

Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1038/20099

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