A new study has shown that people often exaggerate the size of giant squids and whale sharks as they are mostly not of that sizes in reality.
For this a team of researchers geared up and extensively reviewed scientific data and popular media reports in order to estimate sizes of some of the commonly thought as large 25 marine species that included whales, squids, sharks and other large ocean dwellers. The results were quite ordinary in terms that most of these creatures were quite smaller than what had been reported earlier about them.
Craig McClain, a prominent marine biologist at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina stated:” It’s quite rooted in our nature to tell a fishing story, and frankly we are horrible at describing sizes of anything without actually measuring that thing first hand.”
There are many reports indicating that giant squids can reach lengths of up to 60 feet, but real measurement indicate that these creatures actually reach closer to 40 feet, and even that is extremely rare.
Similarly whale sharks have also been accounted to be large, but after observing and taking measurements, that’s also not quite true because many reports and people estimate the animal’s length at 65.6 feet, but in reality it’s close to about 61.7 feet.
