Behold, Crawzilla, the Not-Quite-Biggest Crayfish Ever Caught
And what it can teach us about body size The post Behold, Crawzilla, the Not-Quite-Biggest Crayfish Ever Caught appeared first on Nautilus .
A University of Illinois scientist discovered a gargantuan crayfish that sparked a quest to determine the largest crayfish in North America. Caitlin Bloomer, an environmental scientist, felt certain she had caught the biggest crayfish she'd ever seen. However, her colleague disagreed, stating he'd caught a bigger one before. This led Bloomer and her team to investigate further by gathering data from museum curators and fellow scientists.
They discovered around 20 contenders for the title of largest crayfish in North America, with the largest measuring 86.6 millimeters. Bloomer's crayfish, measuring 77.5 millimeters, did not win the top spot but was the only burrowing crayfish to make the list. The research team found that crayfish typically cannot exceed 80 millimeters in length in North America, despite them never stopping growth throughout their lives.
They explored various factors that might explain this limit, including Bergmann's rule, Cope's rule, and oxygen availability. Ultimately, they concluded that physiological constraints, such as the difficulty of walking and burrowing at larger sizes, and the molting process, which leaves crayfish vulnerable after shedding their shells, may be the primary factors limiting crayfish size.
Written by urgent.news from Nautilus's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
