Observations on the scaling relationship between bony labyrinth, skull size and body mass in ruminants

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loic Costeur ◽  
Bastien Mennecart ◽  
Bert Müller ◽  
Georg Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Bony Labyrinth ◽  
Skull Size ◽  
Scaling Relationship

scholarly journals Intraspecific Variation in Maximum Ingested Food Size and Body Mass in Varecia rubra and Propithecus coquereli

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Hartstone-Rose ◽  
Jonathan M. G. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Maximum Size ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Scaling Relationship ◽  
Varecia Rubra ◽  
Food Size ◽  
The Relationship

In a recent study, we quantified the scaling of ingested food size (Vb )—the maximum size at which an animal consistently ingests food whole—and found that Vb scaled isometrically between species of captive strepsirrhines. The current study examines the relationship between Vb and body size within species with a focus on the frugivorous Varecia rubra and the folivorous Propithecus coquereli. We found no overlap in Vb between the species (all V. rubra ingested larger pieces of food relative to those eaten by P. coquereli), and least-squares regression of Vb and three different measures of body mass showed no scaling relationship within each species. We believe that this lack of relationship results from the relatively narrow intraspecific body size variation and seemingly patternless individual variation in Vb within species and take this study as further evidence that general scaling questions are best examined interspecifically rather than intraspecifically.

scholarly journals Relative skull size as one of the factors limiting skull shape variation in passerines

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oksana Shatkovska ◽  
Maria Ghazali
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Shape Variation ◽  
Absolute Size ◽  
Terrestrial Locomotion ◽  
Skull Shape ◽  
Skull Size ◽  
Dietary Preferences ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Body Sizes ◽  
Biomechanical Constraints

Despite a considerable interest of researchers to the issue of variation in skull shapes of birds and factors influencing it, some drivers associated with the design features of an entire bird body, which are important for both successful terrestrial locomotion and flight, are overlooked. One of such factors, in our opinion, is relative skull size (skull length in relation to body mass), which can affect the position of the body's center of gravity. We tested effects of relative skull size, allometry (i.e. absolute skull size), and diet on variation in skull shape. The study was conducted on 50 songbird species with a wide range of body mass (8.3g to 570g) and dietary preferences (granivores, insectivores/granivores, insectivores, omnivores). Skull shape was analyzed using 2D geometric morphometrics. We revealed that similar patterns of skull shape occur among passerines with different body sizes and diets. The relative skull size predicted skull shape to a similar extent and with a similar pattern as the absolute size. In our opinion, the effect of the relative skull size on skull shape variation is likely due to biomechanical constraints related to flight.

The scale of it all: postcanine tooth size, the taxon-level effect, and the universality of Gould's scaling law

Paleobiology ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn E. Copes ◽  
Gary T. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Scaling Law ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Tooth Size ◽  
Mathematical Methods ◽  
Scaling Relationship ◽  
Small Sample Sizes ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Level Effect

In a seminal paper in 1975, Gould proposed that postcanine occlusal area (PCOA) should scale metabolically (0.75) with body mass across mammals. By regressing PCOA against skull length in a small sample of large-bodied herbivorous mammals, Gould provided some marginal support for this hypothesis, which he then extrapolated as a universal scaling law for Mammalia. Since then, many studies have sought to confirm this scaling relationship within a single order and have found equivocal support for Gould's assertion. In part, this may be related to the use of proxies for both PCOA and body mass, small sample sizes, or the influence of a “taxon-level effect,” rendering Gould's scaling “universal” problematic.Our goal was to test the universality of Gould's prediction and the impact of the taxon-level effect on regressions of tooth size on body mass in a large extant mammalian sample (683 species spanning 14 orders). We tested for the presence of two types of taxon-level effect that may influence the acceptance or rejection of hypothesized scaling coefficients. The hypotheses of both metabolic and isometric scaling can be rejected in Mammalia, but not in all sub-groups therein. The level of data aggregation also influences the interpretation of the scaling relationship. Because the scaling relationship of tooth size to body mass is highly dependent on both the taxonomic level of analysis and the mathematical methods used to organize the data, paleontologists attempting to retrodict body mass from fossilized dental remains must be aware of the effect that sample composition may have on their results.

scholarly journals Endothiodon cf. bathystoma (Synapsida: Dicynodontia) bony labyrinth anatomy, variation and body mass estimates

PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. e0189883 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Araújo ◽  
Vincent Fernandez ◽  
Richard D. Rabbitt ◽  
Eric G. Ekdale ◽  
Miguel T. Antunes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Bony Labyrinth

scholarly journals Fast ontogenetic growth drives steep evolutionary scaling of metabolic rate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommy Norin
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Rate ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Fish Larvae ◽  
Juvenile Fish ◽  
Scaling Exponent ◽  
Natural Mortality ◽  
Metabolic Scaling ◽  
Fast Growing ◽  
Scaling Relationship ◽  
Selection For

Metabolic rate (MR) changes with body mass (BM) as MR = aBMb, where a is a normalisation constant (log–log intercept) and b the scaling exponent (log–log slope). This scaling relationship is fundamental to biology and widely applied, yet a century of research has provided little consensus on why and how steeply metabolic rate scales with body mass. I here show that ontogenetic (within-individual) b can be strongly and positively related to growth rates of juvenile fish when food availability is naturally restricted, with fast growing individuals having steep and near-isometric metabolic scaling (b ≈ 1). I suggest that the steep evolutionary (among-species) scaling also found for fishes (b also approaching 1) is a by-product of natural selection for these fast growing individuals early in ontogeny, and that a weaker relationship between metabolic scaling and growth later in life causes variation in b at lower taxonomic levels (within orders or species). I support these ideas by showing that b within fish orders is linked to natural mortality rates of fish larvae.

scholarly journals Correlation of Skull Size and Brain Volume, with Age, Weight, Height and Body Mass Index of Arak Medical Sciences Students

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parvin-Dokht Bayat ◽  
Ali Ghanbari ◽  
Pardis Sohouli ◽  
Sara Amiri ◽  
Payam Sari-Aslani
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass Index ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Brain Volume ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
Skull Size

scholarly journals Universal metabolic constraints shape the evolutionary ecology of diving in animals

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1927) ◽  
pp. 20200488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilco C. E. P. Verberk ◽  
Piero Calosi ◽  
François Brischoux ◽  
John I. Spicer ◽  
Theodore Garland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Rate ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Dive Duration ◽  
Oxygen Storage ◽  
Air Breathing ◽  
Mass Scaling ◽  
Scaling Relationship

Diving as a lifestyle has evolved on multiple occasions when air-breathing terrestrial animals invaded the aquatic realm, and diving performance shapes the ecology and behaviour of all air-breathing aquatic taxa, from small insects to great whales. Using the largest dataset yet assembled, we show that maximum dive duration increases predictably with body mass in both ectotherms and endotherms. Compared to endotherms, ectotherms can remain submerged for longer, but the mass scaling relationship for dive duration is much steeper in endotherms than in ectotherms. These differences in diving allometry can be fully explained by inherent differences between the two groups in their metabolic rate and how metabolism scales with body mass and temperature. Therefore, we suggest that similar constraints on oxygen storage and usage have shaped the evolutionary ecology of diving in all air-breathing animals, irrespective of their evolutionary history and metabolic mode. The steeper scaling relationship between body mass and dive duration in endotherms not only helps explain why the largest extant vertebrate divers are endothermic rather than ectothermic, but also fits well with the emerging consensus that large extinct tetrapod divers (e.g. plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs) were endothermic.

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