The selective extinction of large-bodied animals could have serious consequences for the health of marine ecosystems, the scientists say, because they tend to be at the tops of food webs and their movements through the water column and the seafloor help cycle nutrients through the oceans.
Judy Skog, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research, said the findings should be incorporated into decisions about how we manage ocean resources like fisheries. "These results show that larger marine animals are poised to disappear from the seas faster than smaller ones," Skog said. "Studies of the fossil record indicate that this trend didn't exist in the past -- it's a new development in today's world.