Scaling: Why Is Animal Size So Important?
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Book Overview
This book is about the importance of animal size. We tend to think of animal function in chemical terms and talk of water, salts, proteins, enzymes, oxygen, energy, and so on. We should not forget, however, that physical laws are equally important, for they determine rates of diffusion and heat transfer, transfer of force and momentum, the strength of structures, the dynamics of locomotion, and other aspects of the functioning of animal bodies. Physical laws provide possibilities and opportunities for an organism, yet they also impose constraints, setting limits to what is physically possible. This book aims to give an understanding of these rules because of their profound implications when we deal with animals of widely different size and scale. The reader will find that the book raises many questions. Remarkable and puzzling information makes it read a little like a detective story, but the last chapter, instead of giving the final solution, neither answers all questions nor provides one great unifying principle.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0521319870
ISBN13:9780521319874
Release Date:July 1984
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Length:256 Pages
Weight:0.80 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Oriented toward physiology
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
Schmidt-Nielsen's "Scaling: why is animal size so important" is a readable introduction to the influence of size on physiology (and vice versa). As noted in a previous review, the chapter describing structural engineering is relatively weak, but the chapters discussing allometric concepts, metabolism, thermoregulation, and physiological time are excellent. Other chapters address respiration and circulation.Unfortunately, Schmidt-Nielsen glosses over the ecological ramifications of the physiological mechanisms described in this book. For the ecologically oriented, I recommend Calder's "Size, function, and life history."All in all, an eye-opener and a heck of a lot more fun to read than most technical works.
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