Mean corpuscular volume differences

[poiknik]

Out of curiosity, I stumbled across this link http://www.genomesize.com/cellsize/mammals.htm which lists the Mean Corpuscular Volume for various mammals.

My question, why does the MCV vary between species of mammal? Whales tend to the highest MCV, but there appear to be quite a few terrestrial animals with higher MCVs.

[marquitosgm]

Interesting

Whithout the time to graph data, check taxonomy and make statistics my first gess is:


1) Deep divers such as dolphins, whales and seals have high MCV. This may well be related to the need to store oxigen when diving. However some kind of balance must exist between cell size and number of cells (few big cells / many small ones).

2) Body size is likely to be another important correlate of MCV. This could help explain why elephants rank among the highest MCV.

Hope this helps and is not too obvious