tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6903316070344664352.post4762993324634049060..comments2024-03-21T07:21:10.901-04:00Comments on The Lord Geekington: Tales of the Incredibly OutsizedCameron McCormickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08521083680718243221noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6903316070344664352.post-42112417846937367032015-12-14T12:51:42.169-05:002015-12-14T12:51:42.169-05:00Lockyer (1991) cites a length-weight regression fo...Lockyer (1991) cites a length-weight regression for sperm whales, which, when adjusted for a conservative 10% of fluid loss, ended up as follows:<br />0.0218*TL[m]^2.74<br /><br />This yields a body mass of ~70t for a 19m whale, ~92t for a 21m one, and ~132t for a 24m whale (which was the largest measured sperm whale recorded by McClain et al. 2015).<br /><br />Also Whitehead et al. 1993 contains another sample of 13 sperm whale with estimated lengths; minimum is 12.8m, maximum is 16.4m, median is 14m, mean is 14.2m. Notably only a single one of these specimens is above the average size at physical maturity, which means that most adult sperm whales aren’t fully grown.<br /><br />--Refs:<br /> Lockyer, Christina (1991): Body composition of the sperm whale, Physeter catodon, with special reference to the possible functions of fat depots. Rit Fiskideilda 12 (2) pp. 1-24.<br /> McClain, Craig R.; Balk, Meghan A.; Benfield, Mark C.; Branch, Trevor A.; Chen, Catherine; Cosgrove, James; Dove, Alistair D.M.; Gaskins, Lindsay C.; Helm, Rebecca R.; Hochberg, Frederick G.; Lee, Frank B.; Marshall, Andrea; McMurray, Steven E.; Schanche, Caroline; Stone, Shane N.; Thaler, Andrew D. (2015): Sizing ocean giants: patterns of intraspecific size variation in marine megafauna. PeerJ, 3 (715) pp. 1-69.<br /> Whitehead, Hal (1993): The behaviour of mature male sperm whales on the Galápagos Islands breeding grounds. Canadian Journal of Zoology 71 (4) pp. 689-699.<br />Darius Nauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01630359709576094063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6903316070344664352.post-81508139839218582522008-11-12T14:57:00.000-05:002008-11-12T14:57:00.000-05:00Haha, oh wow, that certainly explains the almost t...Haha, oh wow, that certainly explains the almost total lack of hits...Cameron McCormickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08521083680718243221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6903316070344664352.post-59533162115720787442008-11-12T05:09:00.000-05:002008-11-12T05:09:00.000-05:00Surely you need to post the Nature Blog Network co...Surely you need to post the Nature Blog Network code on the page to register hits/ if it's not there no wonder it's registering you as 'unpopular' - which you self-evidently aren't...Charliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04562788707213903732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6903316070344664352.post-50743518452109511002008-10-22T11:22:00.000-04:002008-10-22T11:22:00.000-04:00Hello Allen,Your comment reminded me of the Carta ...Hello Allen,<BR/><BR/>Your comment reminded me of the Carta Marina, among all the crazy commotion it showed what appeared to be a 20 foot lobster grabbing some guy near the Hebrides:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carta_marina" REL="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carta_marina</A><BR/><BR/>While that probably isn't the most rigorous depiction of lobster gigantism, occasional specimens still seem to reach preposterous proportions:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0302_050302_lobster.html" REL="nofollow">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0302_050302_lobster.html</A><BR/><BR/>I couldn't help but notice how gigantic those claws are - you are most certainly right about allometry. Astoundingly, that specimen was half the weight of the record, which I posted a photo of (towards the bottom):<BR/><BR/>http://cameronmccormick.blogspot.com/2007/06/revenge-of-honkin-big-animals.html<BR/><BR/>Oddly, the record from 1850 to 1913 was only 25 pounds and the standing record was caught in 1977. Considering that exploited species tend to shrink (and I'm sure the lobster has), this is quite baffling. Perhaps equipment simply could not handle a lobster in the 30-40 pound range until recently.<BR/><BR/>I think gigantic lobsters would make a great case study in gigantism, their bauplan certainly appears to be a lot more plastic than vertebrates. How does a specimen 30 times larger than average function at all, let alone for decades?<BR/><BR/><BR/>As for sperm whales, I'll be looking into jaw proportions later today and if I find sufficient info I'll post on it. Wood did look at allometry, but he only used two data points and I'm not convinced that he had the greatest data to begin with.Cameron McCormickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08521083680718243221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6903316070344664352.post-10601072512551116402008-10-22T01:39:00.000-04:002008-10-22T01:39:00.000-04:00People do want things to be big: the second "here"...People do want things to be big: the second "here" you refer to for the Nantucket museum's jawbone gives TWO estimates for the proportional length of the jaw (20 to 25 percent), and then immediately proceeds to give ONE estimate of the length of the whale it came from, based on the ratio that gives the laonger whale. (Mind you, even a 72 foot sperm whale would be impressive.)<BR/>--<BR/>If calculation of whale size to jaw length gets serious, I'd want somebody to ask the question about allometry. Human pituitary giants tend to have longer jaws, in proportion to overall size, than normals, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised to learn that very big sperm whales have disproportionately long jaws.<BR/>--<BR/>On size, and whoppers, and size reduction under pressure of fishing: American lobsters are seldom now as big as they once were, no? The Peabody Museum (at Yale) at least used to display a huge, bleached, lobster claw. Allometry hits again-- apparently large lobsters have proportionally larger claws-- so this may have come from a critter not much more than three feet long. If you didn't know about allometry and tried to work from the proportions of an average modern lobster, you might imagine something like a five foot lobster... which would certainly be enough to put ME off scuba-diving off the Maine coast!Allen Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05098575774774203097noreply@blogger.com