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Re: Carnivore Energetics: Why Are Lions Not As Big As Elephants?
----- Original Message -----
From: jbois@verizon.net
Date: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 7:23 am
Subject: Re: Carnivore Energetics: Why Are Lions Not As Big As Elephants?
To: Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>, DML <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Cc: dinosaur@usc.edu
> But be careful to recognize that reproductive success may be mightily
> enhanced by investing development time (i.e., in the uterus). A
> well-baked elephant baby with big brain, big size, etc., etc. may well
> stand a better chance of surviving than a half-baked dinosaur baby.
True; it all depends on the other factors involved. Different life histories
work best under different conditions.
> Further, I don't believe there
> is any physiological constraint on a large mammal having many small
> babies rather than one large one.
And in fact, most mammals still go the "many small babies" route. We have to
keep in mind that cats, elephants, etc. while charismatic, do not represent the
majority of mammal diversity. The 1,000+ spp of bats (most of whom have only
one or two babies at a time) bring the average litter size down a bit, but
large litters of small offspring are still the rule for well over 50% of mammal
species on Earth.
Cheers,
--Mike H.