Scaling: Why Is Animal Size So Important?

by Knut Schmidt-Nielsen

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...

• 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

Oriented toward physiology

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.