Slimehead Size Through Time: Testing the Temperature-Size Relationship in Late Cretaceous Trachichthyidae.

ABSTRACT: As global temperatures rise, fish are predicted to become smaller. Body size is a fundamental trait that impacts many aspects of an animal's life history and ecology, and understanding how it may respond to climate change in particular fish groups, especially commercial or keystone species, is critical. The slimeheads (Family Trachichthyidae) include several commercially important species, but because they are deep-dwelling, long-lived fish that reproduce slowly, directly testing the temperature-size relationship in this family is challenging. Fortunately, Trachichthyidae have a long evolutionary history beginning in the Cretaceous, and their fossil record provides empirical data on the response of this family to past climate change events. In this study, we leveraged the extensive fossil

SUBMITTER: Griffiths CV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12461127 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature