elusive Monsters infographic

In this infographic you can find out the actual size of the seas elusive Monsters, compared to a human.

Click the image to expand:

elusive Monsters infographic 2

Credit Matthew Maxwell and Pablo Alvarez Vinagre at StudioAM

A team of scientists from National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina, analyzed the body size of 25 marine species, including whales, sharks, jellyfish and other giants.

According to the study, the world’s longest animal in the ocean is the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, with extended tentacles that can give the animal an incredible length of 120 feet.

People believed that giant squid are as big as 60ft in length, but they are only 40ft at most.

Craig McClain, assistant director of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, said:

“Several years ago I noticed that people kept saying that giant squids reached 60 feet in length, which is amazingly long.”

Meghan Balk, a coauthor and Ph.D. candidate at the University of New Mexico

“It’s fascinating as to why there is size variation [and] why everything isn’t less skewed. How many sizes does an organism go through from the time it’s born to the time it’s an adult?”

She explains that ‘while mammals eat the same diet throughout their lives, animals like fish, sharks, and turtles eat different foods as they grow. For these species, size has a cascading effect within marine food webs.’

The study said its estimate may not be the final conclusion.

via dailymail

source nescent