Článek vysvětluje, jak definovat megafaunu a zvířecí obry, představuje největší živočichy současnosti i minulosti a ukazuje, proč gigantismus vznikal opakovaně. Rozebírá výhody (ochrana, termoregulace, využití zdrojů) i nevýhody (přehřívání, pomalejší reprodukce, vyšší riziko vyhynutí) extrémně velkých těl.
Použitá literatura
ALEXANDER, R. McNeill. All-time giants: the largest animals and their problems. Palaeontology, 1998, 41.6: 1231-1245.
GAYFORD, Joel H., et al. Cautionary tales on the use of proxies to estimate body size and form of extinct animals. Ecology and Evolution, 2024, 14.9: e70218. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70218
HUTCHINSON, John R. The evolutionary biomechanics of locomotor function in giant land animals. Journal of Experimental Biology, 2021, 224.11: jeb217463. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.217463
JANIS, Christine M. Artiodactyl paleoeclogy and evolutionary trends, str. 290-302. In: PROTHERO D. R., FOSS S. E. The evolution of artiodactyls. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2007.
LÓPEZ-GALÁN, Jaime; FERRÓN, Humberto G.; BOTELLA, Héctor. Determinism and contingency in the evolution of giant filter-feeding vertebrates. Evolution, 2026, qpag078. https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpag078
MCCLAIN, Craig R., et al. Sizing ocean giants: patterns of intraspecific size variation in marine megafauna. PeerJ, 2015, 3: e715. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.715
SMITH, Felisa A. Mammalian paleoecology: using the past to study the present. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2021.
VERMEIJ, Geerat J. Gigantism and its implications for the history of life. PloS one, 2016, 11.1: e0146092. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146092
Internetové zdroje
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_and_heaviest_animals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_prehistoric_animals
https://vesmir.cz/cz/casopis/archiv-casopisu/2015/cislo-4/na-velikosti-zalezi.html
This article defines megafauna and giant animals, reviews the largest living and extinct species, and explains why gigantism evolved repeatedly. It discusses the benefits of huge body size, such as self-protection and efficient resource use, as well as its costs, including overheating, slower reproduction, and greater extinction risk.
