Gill area explains deviations from body size–metabolic rate relationship in teleost fishes

Whether gill area constrains fish metabolism through oxygen limitation is a debated topic. Here, the authors provide insights into this question by analysing mass-specific metabolic rates across 44 teleost fishes extracted from FishBase. They explore whether species deviations from metabolic rates predicted by body mass can be explained by species gill area. They show that the gill area explains c. 26%–28% of species-level deviations from mass-specific metabolic rates. Their findings suggest that gill area might indeed be one of the factors limiting metabolic rate in fishes.