Deep Sea Gigantism Explained

Deep Sea Gigantism (abyssal gigantism) is defined as the the tendency for deep-sea animals to grow to much larger sizes than their shallow water relatives.

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.

#deepsea #wildlife #nature #animals #ocean #fish #science #biology

0:00 Introduction
0:47 Deep Sea Gigantism
1:16 How Deep Sea Organisms Grow so Large
1:52 Kleiber's Rule - Larger Animals are More Efficient
2:44 Bergman's Rule - Sea Animals Grow Larger in Cold Climates
3:57 Gigantism in the Colossal Squid
4:13 The Island Rule
5:16 How the Deep Sea Mirrors the Island Rule
6:03 Gigantism in the Giant Isopod
6:40 Resources in the Deep Ocean
7:03 Conclusion
7:54 Outro

Resources:

[NaturalWorldFacts]

Some shots in this older version were removed (blurred) due to ambiguity about the licensing rights of some footage. This is also amended in the new version.

[ogaucho]

Imagine living peacefully at the bottom of the ocean and out of nowhere some human comes and calls you ugly

[damanprest]

the deep sea used to scare my sister so much that she wouldn’t even swim in the ocean on grand theft auto

[tapewormjr.]

I found a beached giant squid when I was a kid. Called a lifeguard over and he explained a bunch of stuff about it and called someone who he said could dissect it. I got to take pictures riding on it like a horse. Still one of my coolest childhood memories

[a_boshi]

For anyone who's was curious, the jellyfish at 6:08 is the Halitrephes maasi or firework jellyfish

[Notllamalord]

"Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you're doing is worth it?"

[Razagul]

I'm not fat, I'm just efficient

[NaturalWorldFacts]

Well this is going viral! To all of you about to comment on the music volume, audio quality or narration issues in this video, please note this was the first ever video I made in my Deep-sea Wonders series! This was before I’d bought a mic, properly figured out my style or delved deeper into the topic, so know that I’m aware this video is far from perfect haha! My newer ones, in my opinion at least, are much better.

[naejin]

"Giants will be the first to go." Kind of reminds me of when the meteor struck the earth causing the big dinosaurs to go extinct and only the smaller life forms survived. There is a hidden (rarely realized) evolutionary advantages of being smaller sometimes in a long enough time scale.

[HeliRy]

It’s so counter intuitive. I would have thought that larger animals required more fuel to keep them going… not the opposite. But then look at the Hummingbird. They’re tiny, but are absolutely voracious for an animal of their size. Pound for pound they’re one of the largest consumers on the planet, energy wise.

[marcog.verbruggen]

"While there may be no Lovecraftian horrors lurking in our oceans--"

SAYS YOU!

[neerajoshi]

For Anyone Curious, the Shark at 7:34 is A Basking Shark, one of The three species that filter water for food

[dahsynn]

one time i was swimming at the beach, fairly deep you could say, and all of a sudden, i saw a white-black figure in the water. i quickly ascended, and later concluded that it was, in fact, an astronaut in the ocean.

[spooksboh]

him: "sea spiders-"
my arachnophobia, bashing me in the face with a crowbar: BET YOU THOUGHT THE SEA WAS SPIDERLESS HUH??

[milofragger]

“ There may be no Lovecraftian horror “

Giant squid: *and i took that personally*

[DarkN]

6:07 Man's lookin like one of those biblically accurate angels...

[murr]

The YouTube recommendations have brought me here, I hope everyone gets this masterpiece

[nexuskld]

I thought you said "sea spiders the size of airplanes" at one point and it freaked me the hell out. Glad I went back a few seconds to listen again lol!

[_sofie]

I actually learned so much. I was expecting a mumbling voice saying the same few sentences over and over before answering the question in the title in three seconds

[davidesimonazzi]

This video is a masterpiece. Everything is so incredible, the explainations, the music, the footages, the editing and the voice as well, it really creates this sort of eerie atmosphere as if it were me swimming in the abyss myself and looking at these extraordinary creatures. Really awesome video!