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The origin and maintenance of metabolic allometry in animals

White, Craig R.; Marshall, Dustin J.; Alton, Lesley A.; Arnold, Pieter; Beaman, Julian E.; Bywater, Candice L.; Condon, Catriona; Crispin, Taryn S.; Janetzki, Aidan; Pirtle, Elia; Winwood-Smith, Hugh S.

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Organisms vary widely in size, from microbes weighing 0.1 pg to trees weighing thousands of megagrams — a 1021-fold range similar to the difference in mass between an elephant and the Earth. Mass has a pervasive influence on biological processes, but the effect is usually non-proportional; for example, a tenfold increase in mass is typically accompanied by just a four- to sevenfold increase in metabolic rate. Understanding the cause of allometric scaling has been a long-standing problem in...[Show more]

dc.contributor.authorWhite, Craig R.
dc.contributor.authorMarshall, Dustin J.
dc.contributor.authorAlton, Lesley A.
dc.contributor.authorArnold, Pieter
dc.contributor.authorBeaman, Julian E.
dc.contributor.authorBywater, Candice L.
dc.contributor.authorCondon, Catriona
dc.contributor.authorCrispin, Taryn S.
dc.contributor.authorJanetzki, Aidan
dc.contributor.authorPirtle, Elia
dc.contributor.authorWinwood-Smith, Hugh S.
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-13T23:56:22Z
dc.identifier.issn2397-334X
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/173748
dc.description.abstractOrganisms vary widely in size, from microbes weighing 0.1 pg to trees weighing thousands of megagrams — a 1021-fold range similar to the difference in mass between an elephant and the Earth. Mass has a pervasive influence on biological processes, but the effect is usually non-proportional; for example, a tenfold increase in mass is typically accompanied by just a four- to sevenfold increase in metabolic rate. Understanding the cause of allometric scaling has been a long-standing problem in biology. Here, we examine the evolution of metabolic allometry in animals by linking microevolutionary processes to macroevolutionary patterns. We show that the genetic correlation between mass and metabolic rate is strong and positive in insects, birds and mammals. We then use these data to simulate the macroevolution of mass and metabolic rate, and show that the interspecific relationship between these traits in animals is consistent with evolution under persistent multivariate selection on mass and metabolic rate over long periods of time.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoen_AU
dc.publisherNature Publishing Group
dc.rights© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019
dc.sourceNature Ecology & Evolution
dc.titleThe origin and maintenance of metabolic allometry in animals
dc.typeJournal article
local.description.notesImported from ARIES
local.identifier.citationvolume3
dc.date.issued2019
local.identifier.absfor060604 - Comparative Physiology
local.identifier.absfor060309 - Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis
local.identifier.ariespublicationu9511635xPUB1896
local.publisher.urlhttps://www.nature.com/
local.type.statusPublished Version
local.contributor.affiliationWhite, Craig R., University of Queensland
local.contributor.affiliationMarshall, Dustin J., Monash University
local.contributor.affiliationAlton, Lesley A., The University of Queensland
local.contributor.affiliationArnold, Pieter, College of Science, ANU
local.contributor.affiliationBeaman, Julian E., The University of Queensland
local.contributor.affiliationBywater, Candice L., Monash University
local.contributor.affiliationCondon, Catriona, Arizona State University
local.contributor.affiliationCrispin, Taryn S., The University of Queensland
local.contributor.affiliationJanetzki, Aidan, The University of Queensland
local.contributor.affiliationPirtle, Elia, The University of Melbourne
local.contributor.affiliationWinwood-Smith, Hugh S., The University of Queensland
local.description.embargo2037-12-31
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110101776
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT130101493
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170101114
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP180103925
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage598
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage603
local.identifier.doi10.1038/s41559-019-0839-9
local.identifier.absseo970106 - Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences
dc.date.updated2019-04-21T08:36:24Z
local.identifier.scopusID2-s2.0-85063651198
CollectionsANU Research Publications

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