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科学家发现鲸鱼巨大体型的产生原因
作者:小柯机器人 发布时间:2019/12/13 18:45:16

美国斯坦福大学J. A. Goldbogen等研究人员揭示出鲸鱼形成巨大体型的原因与生态限制。这一研究成果2019年12月13日发表在国际学术期刊《科学》上。

研究人员测量了饲喂性能和猎物质量,以证明捕食者丰度和收获机制之间的相互作用如何驱动巨人鲸活动,从而增加了猎物的捕获率和能量摄入。以单个猎物为食的带齿鲸的觅食效率受到大型猎物的丰富性的限制,而以滤食为基础的鲸鱼则季节性地以高效率捕捞大量小猎物。给定在时间和空间上聚集的猎物,滤食提供了一种进化途径,从而可以达到极端的体形,而这对于必须一次捕食一个猎物的类型来说是不可行的。滤食动物的最大尺寸可能受空间和时间范围内猎物可用性的限制。

据了解,最大的动物是海洋滤食动物,但其大尺寸的潜在机制仍无法解释。

附:英文原文

Title: Why whales are big but not bigger: Physiological drivers and ecological limits in the age of ocean giants

Author: J. A. Goldbogen, D. E. Cade, D. M. Wisniewska, J. Potvin, P. S. Segre, M. S. Savoca, E. L. Hazen, M. F. Czapanskiy, S. R. Kahane-Rapport, S. L. DeRuiter, S. Gero, P. Tnnesen, W. T. Gough, M. B. Hanson, M. M. Holt, F. H. Jensen, M. Simon, A. K. Stimpert, P. Arranz, D. W. Johnston, D. P. Nowacek, S. E. Parks, F. Visser, A. S. Friedlaender, P. L. Tyack, P. T. Madsen, N. D. Pyenson

Issue&Volume: 2019/12/13

Abstract: The largest animals are marine filter feeders, but the underlying mechanism of their large size remains unexplained. We measured feeding performance and prey quality to demonstrate how whale gigantism is driven by the interplay of prey abundance and harvesting mechanisms that increase prey capture rates and energy intake. The foraging efficiency of toothed whales that feed on single prey is constrained by the abundance of large prey, whereas filter-feeding baleen whales seasonally exploit vast swarms of small prey at high efficiencies. Given temporally and spatially aggregated prey, filter feeding provides an evolutionary pathway to extremes in body size that are not available to lineages that must feed on one prey at a time. Maximum size in filter feeders is likely constrained by prey availability across space and time.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aax9044

Source:https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6471/1367

期刊信息
Science:《科学》,创刊于1880年。隶属于美国科学促进会,最新IF:41.037