There are two different hypothetical species of single-cellanimals (ie, each animal consists of only one cell) living in thesame environment. They are identical except that the animals of onespecies are three times as big as the other. Suddenly theirenvironment becomes dramatically worse: the nutrients that eachspecies requires become far less abundant than before. Under thisset of now-unfavorable conditions the number of animals in thesmaller single-cell species remained constant for quite a whilebefore the population began to decrease as the small-cell animalsdied from starvation. The larger single-cell animal species,however, started to disappear very soon after the change ofenvironment and completely disappeared long before the smaller onesdid. Why did the species of smaller cells survive longer than didthe larger-cell species?
There are two different hypothetical species of single-cellanimals (ie, each animal consists of only one cell) living in thesame environment. They are identical except that the animals of onespecies are three times as big as the other. Suddenly theirenvironment becomes dramatically worse: the nutrients that eachspecies requires become far less abundant than before. Under thisset of now-unfavorable conditions the number of animals in thesmaller single-cell species remained constant for quite a whilebefore the population began to decrease as the small-cell animalsdied from starvation. The larger single-cell animal species,however, started to disappear very soon after the change ofenvironment and completely disappeared long before the smaller onesdid. Why did the species of smaller cells survive longer than didthe larger-cell species?
