Nature has a few rules to help explain the extreme shapes and sizes we see in the animal kingdom.
Animals come in extreme shapes and sizes, from enormous elephants and colossal squids to miniature marmoset monkeys and teeny-weeny frogs. But there is some method to nature's madness, and while evolution can be unpredictable, there are a few established rules that govern how animals take these extreme shapes.
A polar bear in the Arctic, for example, is more than two and a half times taller than a sun bear living in the tropics of South East Asia, according to The University of Texas at Austin. The rule is named after the German biologist Carl Bergmann, according to Oxford Reference.Allen's ruleAllen's rule states that animals in colder climates tend to have comparatively smaller appendages, such as limbs, ears and tails, than their relatives in warmer temperatures.
The square-cube law imposes a theoretical limit on how big animals can get, Live Science previously reported. Scientists believe the weight limit is around 120 tons for land animals. Deep-sea gigantismThere's a tendency for invertebrate animals to evolve into giants at great ocean depths. Think colossal squid or giant crabs. Larger animals can move farther to find food and mate, which may help explain why there are so many giants in the deep sea where resources are scarce, Live Science previously reported. Larger animals also have more efficient metabolisms and a greater capacity to store energy from food.
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