Scaling Data Nugget Lab

"Bergmann's Rule" is the idea that animals living in colder environments tend to have larger bodies, while smaller animals are more often found in warmer regions. Why might this be?

Larger animals have relatively less surface area to lose heat through

In the lab activity, did your evidence support your hypothesis that animals with adhesive pads tend to keep the same mass/area ratio?

No, larger animals did have disproportionally larger toes, but not enough to keep the same mass/area ratio

Let assume that the weight a bird's wings can support depend on the area of the bird's wings. Do you think large and small birds are shaped the same? why or why not?

No, larger birds likely have disproportionally larger wings

Given how area and mass scale, would you expect geckos to have the same relatively sized toe pads as smaller geckos? why or why not?

No, larger geckos will need disproportionally larger pads to support their mass

If humans had sticky toes like geckos, how big do you think our fingertips and toes would need to be to support our body weight?

The size of a sheet of printer paper

As organisms grow during their lifespan, if they stayed the same shape, what problems might they develop?

issues with area-related functions (absorption across surfaces for example)

Our small intestine helps up absorb nutrients. We move nutrients across the surface of this organ into our blood stream. All else the same, like diet and metabolism, how do you think the GI tracks of large and small animals compare?

larger animals have disproportionally larger GI tracks so that they can absorb enough nutrients to support their increase in mass

Assuming organisms are all the same shape, when comparing smaller organisms to larger organisms, larger organisms have relatively more what?

more mass compared to surface area

Smaller "warm blooded" animals (which are called endotherms like birds and mammals), generate their own body heat via their metabolism, using the energy from their food to stay warm. Smaller endotherms tend to have higher metabolisms. Why might this be?

smaller animals loose more of their heat through their surface area and so need to generate more heat

As a doctor working on a Mars colony, you start to notice that the people living in the habitat domes have smaller lungs, with less internal surface area, than humans generations ago. Why might this be?

the oxygen content in the domes is at 25%, not 21%