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Allometry: The Study of Biological Scaling | Learn Science at Scitable

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Allometry, in its broadest sense, describes how the characteristics of living creatures change with size. The term originally referred to the scaling relationship between the size of a body part and the size of the body as a whole, as both grow during development. However, more recently the meaning of the term allometry has been modified and expanded to refer to biological scaling relationships in general, be it for morphological traits (e.g., the relationship between brain size and body size among adult humans), physiological traits (e.g., the relationship between metabolic rate and body size among mammal species) or ecological traits (e.g., the relationship between wing size and flight performance in birds). Indeed, allometric relationships can be described for almost any co-varying biological measurements, resulting in broad usage of the term. However, a unifying theme is that allometry describes how traits or processes scale with one another. The study of allometry concerns the fun

Allometry: The Study of Biological Scaling | Learn Science at Scitable This page has been archived and is no longer updated Allometry: The Study of Biological Scaling By: Alexander W. Shingleton ( Department of Zoology, Michigan State University ) © 2010 Nature Education Citation: Shingleton, A. (2010) Allometry: The Study of Biological Scaling. Nature Education Knowledge 3( 10 ) :2 Allometry is the study of how these processes scale with body size and with each other, and the impact this has on ecology and evolution. Aa Aa Aa Allometry, in its broadest sense, describes how the characteri

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