Mammals have a heart that is about 0.6% of the total body mass across the board from a small mouse to a large Blue Whale. It can be expressed as: Heart Weight = 0.006Mb1.0, where Mb is the body mass of the individual. Lung volume is also directly related to body mass in mammals (slope = 1.02). The lung has a volume of 63 ml for every kg of body mass. In addition, the tidal volume at rest in an individual is 1/10 the lung volume. Also respiration costs with respect to oxygen consumption is scaled in the order of Mb.75. This shows that mammals, regardless of size, have the same size respiratory and cardiovascular systems and it turn have the same amount of blood: About 5.5% of body mass. This means that for a similarly designed marine mammals, the larger the individual the more efficiently they can travel compared to a smaller individual. It takes the same effort to move one body length whether the individual is one meter or ten meters. This can explain why large whales can migrate far distance in the oceans and not stop for rest. It is metabolically less expensive to be larger in body size. This goes for terrestrial and flying animals as well. In fact, for an organism to move any distance, regardless of type from elephants to centipedes, smaller animals consume more oxygen per unit body mass than larger ones. This metabolic advantage that larger animals have makes it possible for larger marine mammals to dive for longer durations of time than their smaller counterparts. That the heart rate is lower means that larger animals can carry more blood, which carries more oxygen. Then in conjuncture with the fact that mammals reparation costs scales in the order of Mb.75 shows how an advantage can be had in having a larger body mass. More simply, a larger whale can hold more oxygen and at the same time demand less metabolically than a smaller whale.
Shawn is curious as to how body mass affects animals of different sizes in regards to metabolism, oxygen consumption, and heart rate. To do this, he is studying two different animals of very different sizes. Animal A is extremely large, and Animal B is extremely small.
Which animal will be able to travel a longer distance without resting, Animal A or Animal B?