Nature favours all creatures great and small over medium-sized, study suggests

The researchers spent five years compiling and analysing data about the size and biomass of every type of living organism on the planet

Nature favours all creatures great and small over medium size, study suggests (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Life may come in all shapes and sizes, but nature favours the biggest and smallest creatures over the medium-sized, research suggests.

A survey of body sizes of Earth organisms suggests the planet’s biomass – the material that makes up all living organisms – is concentrated in organisms at either end of the size spectrum.