From MinuteEarth.
The most massive land animals in the world all eat little stuff: grass and leaves. And almost all of the most massive aquatic animals also eat something itty bitty: tiny crustaceans called krill. Why do such big things eat such small things?
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
– Jarman-Bell Principle: As herbivore species get bigger in size, they tend to eat less nutritious food, but more of it, thanks to increased gut efficiency.
– Klieber’s Law: As an animal gets bigger, it needs less energy per unit mass. (Specifically, an animal’s basal metabolic rate scales to the 3/4 power of the animal’s mass.)
– Phytoplankton: A diverse group of small organisms that float on water and photosynthesize.
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CREDITS
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David Goldenberg | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Lizah van der Aart | Storyboard Artist
Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music
MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC
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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke
Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes
Henry Reich • Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida
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REFERENCES
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Cooke, R., Gearty, W., Chapman, A.S.A. et al. Anthropogenic disruptions to longstanding patterns of trophic-size structure in vertebrates. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 684–692 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01726-x
Belovsky, G.E. Optimal foraging and community structure: the allometry of herbivore food selection and competition. Evol Ecol 11, 641–672 (1997). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1018430201230
Biomes Group, Biology 1B, UC Berkeley. The grassland biome. University of California Museum of Paleontology (1996, reformatted 2007). https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/grasslands.php
Greenfieldboyce, N. The biggest whales can eat the equivalent of 80,000 Big Macs in one day. NPR (2021, November 3). https://www.npr.org/2021/11/03/1051650199/the-biggest-whales-can-eat-the-equivalent-of-80-000-big-macs-in-one-day
Stokstad, E. Rootin’, poopin’ African elephants help keep soil fertile. Science (2022, October 26). https://www.science.org/content/article/rootin-poopin-african-elephants-help-keep-soil-fertile
Thompson, J. How Antarctic krill coordinate the biggest swarms in the world. Sci Am (2022, July 1). https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-antarctic-krill-coordinate-the-biggest-swarms-in-the-world/
