The geography of body size in cuttlefishes (Cephalopoda, Sepiidae)

Abstract

AbstractThis study explores body size in sepiids (Cephalopoda, Sepiidae) on the interspecific scale and provides an overview of their geographical distribution. Results reveal a highly skewed distribution of body size variation for raw values and a nearly normal distribution for log-transformed data. However, normality is not statistically validated due to the overrepresentation of small and large species. The geographical distribution of sepiids reveals five main clusters: Atlantic, Cape Basin, Indian Ocean, Asia-Pacific, and Australian. On average, clusters display more or less the same mean body size pattern except the Cape Basin cluster, which is statistically different from the others (smaller interspecific mean body size). The reasons remain unclear but a phylogenetic effect is suspected as southwest African coastal waters concentrate species from the ‘Hemisepius’ complex which is made up of small species. Sepiids do not obey Bergmann’s rule: species from high latitudes do not tend to be larger than species from low latitudes.