BIOLOGY 3UU3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Allometry, Neoteny
12 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Body size & allometry: the scaling of organismal. Allometry: the study of the relationship between size & shape. Refer to human body size & the laws of scaling: physiological, performance, growth, longevity, & ecological ramifications. Recall- taller humans have shorter lifespans than shorter humans. Bumblebee bat = 2 g; hog-nosed bat = 1. 5 g. Blue whale = 136 000 000 g: e. g. Pterosaurs were likely gliders given lack of breastbone, but had 40 foot wingspan. Orthogenesis- relates to fact that in lineage of organisms, there is evolutionary trend for them to get bigger. Larger species tend to go extinct before smaller species. Internal organization of species vs across species changes allometric pattern. Neoteny- gould showed that infant chimps look more like humans than the adults. Island impacts on body size: food & predator limitations perhaps, recall- florence hominids & mammoths. Found to be substantial smaller on these islands, but did survive while those on mainland died out.
