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Similarity Of Mammalian Body Size Across The Taxonomic Hierarchy And Across Space And Time, Felisa A. Smith, James H. Brown, John P. Haskell, S. Kathleen Lyons, John Alroy, Eric L. Charnov, Tamar Dayan, Brian J. Enquist, S.K. Morgan Ernest, Elizabeth A. Hadly, David Jablonski, Kate E. Jones, Dawn M. Kaufman, Pablo A. Marquet, Brian A. Maurer, Karl J. Niklas, Warren P. Porter, Kaustuv Roy, Bruce Tiffney, Michael R. Willig May 2004

Similarity Of Mammalian Body Size Across The Taxonomic Hierarchy And Across Space And Time, Felisa A. Smith, James H. Brown, John P. Haskell, S. Kathleen Lyons, John Alroy, Eric L. Charnov, Tamar Dayan, Brian J. Enquist, S.K. Morgan Ernest, Elizabeth A. Hadly, David Jablonski, Kate E. Jones, Dawn M. Kaufman, Pablo A. Marquet, Brian A. Maurer, Karl J. Niklas, Warren P. Porter, Kaustuv Roy, Bruce Tiffney, Michael R. Willig

Biology Faculty & Staff Publications

Although it is commonly assumed that closely related animals are similar in body size, the degree of similarity has not been examined across the taxonomic hierarchy. Moreover, little is known about the variation or consistency of body size patterns across geographic space or evolutionary time. Here, we draw from a data set of terrestrial, nonvolant mammals to quantify and compare patterns across the body size spectrum, the taxonomic hierarchy, continental space, and evolutionary time. We employ a variety of statistical techniques including "sib-sib" regression, phylogenetic autocorrelation, and nested ANOVA. We find an extremely high resemblance (heritability) of size among congeneric …


Effects Of Body Size And Temperature On Population Growth, Van M. Savage, James F. Gillooly, James H. Brown, Geoffrey B. West, Eric Charnov Mar 2004

Effects Of Body Size And Temperature On Population Growth, Van M. Savage, James F. Gillooly, James H. Brown, Geoffrey B. West, Eric Charnov

Biology Faculty & Staff Publications

For at least 200 years, since the time of Malthus, population growth has been recognized as providing a critical link between the performance of individual organisms and the ecology and evolution of species.We present a theory that shows how the intrinsic rate of exponential population growth, , and the carrying capacity, rmax K, depend on individual metabolic rate and resource supply rate. To do this, we construct equations for the metabolic rates of entire populations by summing over individuals, and then we combine these population-level equations with Malthusian growth. Thus, the theory makes explicit the relationship between rates of resource …


Size And Temperature In The Evolution Of Fish Life Histories, Eric Charnov, James Gillooly Jan 2004

Size And Temperature In The Evolution Of Fish Life Histories, Eric Charnov, James Gillooly

Biology Faculty & Staff Publications

Body size and temperature are the two most important variables affecting nearly all biological rates and times, especially individual growth or production rates. By favoring an optimal maturation age and reproductive allocation, natural selection links individual growth to the mortality schedule. A recent model for evolution of life histories for species with indeterminate growth, which includes most fish, successfully predicts the numeric values of two key dimensionless numbers and the allometry of the average reproductive allocation versus maturation size across species. Here we use this new model to predict the relationships of age-at-maturity, adult mortality and reproductive effort to environmental …


The Optimal Balance Between Growth Rate And Survival In Mammals, Eric Charnov Jan 2004

The Optimal Balance Between Growth Rate And Survival In Mammals, Eric Charnov

Biology Faculty & Staff Publications

Evolutionary theory for life-history allometry in mammals is extended to include a trade-off between body-size growth rate and adult lifespan.