A team of scientists led by Craig McClain have just published, “Sizing ocean giants: patterns of intraspecific size variation in marine megafauna“, a research paper dedicated to the review and analysis of 25 ocean giants ranging across the animal kingdom. The paper explains:

The largest living representatives of most taxa occur in the oceans… Today, these formidable species, such as blue whales and giant squids, continue to attract considerable attention from scientists, media, and the public alike. However, misconceptions about the sizes these species obtain are just as rampant in the scientific literature as the popular media… Quantitative knowledge of body size is vital as it is a significant determinant of an organism’s biological role; and size is the key underlying parameter of many allometric equations that predict a variety of physiological, anatomical, ecological, and life history parameters.

Species were chosen that frequently occur in the mainstream media…