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Metabolism of the abyssopelagic rattail Coryphaenoides armatus measured in situ

Nature volume 274, pages 362–364 (1978)Cite this article

Abstract

MEASUREMENTS of the oxygen consumption of two common benthopelagic fishes, Coryphaenoides acrolepis and Eptatretus deani, made in situ at 1,230 m in the San Diego Trough1 have indicated low respiration rates. The metabolic measurements reported here for the rattail, Coryphaenoides (Nematonurus) armatus (Hector), at 3,650 m support the earlier findings of low respiration rates in deep-sea rattails. They also support the physiological axiom that respiration increases as a fractional power of body weight in animals2–4. Both the metabolic rate and chemical composition of C. armatus suggest an adaptation to a food-limited deep-sea environment.

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  1. Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, 92093

    K. L. SMITH JR

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SMITH, K. Metabolism of the abyssopelagic rattail Coryphaenoides armatus measured in situ. Nature 274, 362–364 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/274362a0

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